It is estimated that batteries have now been with man for over 500 years. The earliest documented methods of generating electricity were by generating a static charge. It was not until the year 1800 that a man called Volta invented a battery called voltaic pile. This voltaic battery was discs of zinc plus copper piled on each other. The discs were separated by cloth soaked in brine. In the year 1836, a British man by the name Daniel came up with another battery which he named Daniell cell. This Daniel man was a chemist as well as a meteorologist. Daniel used one pots one with zinc sulfate solution plus the other with copper sulfate solution to generate electricity.
Fuel Cell
In 1839, Sir Grove of UK invented the fuel cell where electrons plus protons are separated from reactant fuel by a catalyst like in today’s phosphoric-acid fuel cell. In 1859, a Frenchman by the name Planté came up along with his lead acid battery which was a rechargeable battery plus which people have been using in automobiles even up to today. In 1868, another Frenchman called Georges Leclanche came up with Leclanche cell in which he crushed manganese dioxide, plus used a carbon rod as the cathode whilst zinc rod was the anode plus were then immersed in a solution of ammonium chloride. In 1888, an American by the name Gassner done the Leclanche battery in to a dry cell which could not leak fluids because he used molten salt – talk about seeing far because this dry cell compaq presario 3000 battery has translated in to an industry worth billions of dollars.
Union Carbide Corporation
From 1960 onwards the Union Carbide Corporation had developed sufficient financial muscle to over on the development of batteries for the limitless world markets. In particular, they successfully done the development of alkaline batteries plus alkaline cells. An alkaline battery is a battery made of multiple cells. they developed disposable alkaline batteries as well as rechargeable alkaline batteries. The alkaline batteries are batteries dependent on the reaction between zinc plus manganese (IV) oxide.
Nickel-Iron Battery
In 1901, Thomas Edison invented the nickel-iron battery which was meant to be storage battery. This battery had a nickel (III) oxide-hydroxide cathode plus an iron anode, with an electrolyte of potassium hydroxide. The battery was meant to power electric vehicles. The battery was robust plus was easy to charge. It was however costly. The nickel-iron battery could be charged continuously thus making it ideal for backup power supply. The Edison battery company was sold to Exide Battery Corporation who found the battery unprofitable plus with no future plus discontinued production in 1975.
Nickel-Metal Hydride Cell
In 1989, the nickel-metal hydride cell was successfully developed. The nickel-metal hydride cell is similar to nickel hydrogen cell only that the battery makes use of a hydrogen-absorbing alloy for the negative electrode in lieu of cadmium. By 1990, the union carbide corporation jumped in to the game they knew playing plus successfully commercialized the nickel-metal hydride battery.
