Where does a battery get its energy?

Answer 1

Electricity, as you probably already know, is the flow of electrons through a conductive path like a wire. This path is called a circuit.

Batteries have three parts, an anode (-), a cathode (+), and the electrolyte. The cathode and anode (the positive and negative sides at either end of a traditional battery) are hooked up to an electrical circuit.

The chemical reactions in the battery causes a build up of electrons at the anode. This results in an electrical difference between the anode and the cathode. You can think of this difference as an unstable build-up of the electrons. The electrons wants to rearrange themselves to get rid of this difference. But they do this in a certain way. Electrons repel each other and try to go to a place with fewer electrons.

In a battery, the only place to go is to the cathode. But, the electrolyte keeps the electrons from going straight from the anode to the cathode within the battery. When the circuit is closed (a wire connects the cathode and the anode) the electrons will be able to get to the cathode. In the picture above, the electrons go through the wire, lighting the light bulb along the way. This is one way of describing how electrical potential causes electrons to flow through the circuit.

However, these electrochemical processes change the chemicals in anode and cathode to make them stop supplying electrons. So there is a limited amount of power available in a battery.

When you recharge a battery, you change the direction of the flow of electrons using another power source, such as solar panels. The electrochemical processes happen in reverse, and the anode and cathode are restored to their original state and can again provide full power.

Answer 2

Batteries make electrical current when a chemical reaction takes place which causes electrons to be attracted to one plate and repeled from another. Chemical potential energy is converted to electrical energy. The battery is flat (dead) when the chemical reaction is completely used up. Electrical cells can use any two unlike metals or other conductors with an acid as an electrolyte. Each metal has its own level of attraction for electrons. A fun experiment is to take a nice juicy orange or lemon. Gently stick it with a copper or brass nail. An inch or so away, stick it with a steel nail (making sure the two nails don't touch inside the fruit). Connect a voltmeter to the two nails and you can see that you have built a battery.

Answer 3

through an electrochemical reaction. in these reactions, an electron is passed from one atom to another, but we take advantage of the fact that we can have the atoms exchange electrons through a wire rather than through direct contact and that produces a current

Answer 4

When we complete the circuit by connecting the external resistance, then at the terminals of battery there develops a potential difference. hence current flows