Battery Failure Electro Chemistry Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Battery Failure Electro Chemistry Essay, Research Paper Problem: BATTERIES TEND TO FAIL AT EXTREME TEMPERATURES. TESTABLE Question: HOW AND WHY DO DIFFERENT BATTERY TYPES FAIL AT EXTREME TEMPERATURES? ELECTRO CHEMISTY BATTERY FAILURE HONORS CHEMISTY RESEARCH PROJECT History OF THE BATTERY The battery s beginnings may be followed back to really ancient times. We know that many of the wise work forces could hold been researching and proving electricity. For illustration, a clay vase, thought to be several thousand old ages old, was discovered in 1932 near Baghdad. It contained an Fe rod inserted into a thin Cu cylinder, which may hold served to keep inactive electricity. Although we may neer cognize the truth, it still makes one admiration if the ancients really did seek to tackle inactive electricity. Whether their predecessors who assembled the clay vase knew anything about inactive electricity or non, we know for certain that the ancient Greeks did. They knew if a piece of gold was rubbed, it would pull light weight objects. And Aristotle knew about the loadstone, a strongly magnetic ore that attracts Fe and metals. Theses two facts prove that the Greek s had the thought procedure to generalize theories and thoughts from simple experiments, therefore taking many to believe that they had a basic apprehension of basic natural forces. The following large measure in the harnessing of electricity came when Benjamin Franklin began to surmise that lightning was an electrical current in nature. To prove his intuitions, Franklin devised his celebrated experiment in which he fastened a key to a kite to see if the lightning would go through through the metal. As we all know Franklin # 8217 ; s experiment worked therefore turn outing that lightning is a watercourse of electrified air. Franklin went on to coin many of today # 8217 ; s standard electrical footings, including # 8220 ; battery, # 8221 ; # 8220 ; charge, # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; conductor. # 8221 ; Amber friction and loadstone analyzing aside, the existent development of batteries for mundane usage has been a undertaking since merely the early 1800 s. Alessandro Volta, a professor of natural doctrine at the University of Pavia [ located in Italy ] , constructed the first setup known to bring forth uninterrupted electricity. To make so he stacked braces of coin-sized phonograph record, one Ag, the other Zn, and separated the braces by a wafer of pasteboard, leather, or some other squashy stuff. The wafers had been soaked in salt H2O and sometimes, alkalic solutions. Several hemorrhoids were assembled side by side and were connected by metal strips. At each terminal of the system, a metal strip was dead set down to dunk into a little cup of quicksilver, an first-class electrical contact. A few old ages subsequently, in 1813, Sir Humphrey Davy came up with a elephantine battery in the cellar of Britain # 8217 ; s Royal Society. It was made up of 2,000 braces of home bases and took up 889 square pess. Davy used this battery for experimental uses. Through electrolysis, he broke apart natural Na and K compounds to insulate pure Na and K metal. It was a hazardous project because both explode on contact with H2O and must be kept immersed in kerosine or some other hydrocarbon liquid. Davy # 8217 ; s work, nevertheless, went beyond mere puttering in the cellar with unsafe chemicals ; the experiments he conducted were important. They paved the manner to a deeper apprehension about the electric nature of things that is ; how simple substances combine through electrical attractive force to organize common natural compounds. Near behind Sir Humphrey Davy # 8217 ; s battery experiments, Michael Faraday was utilizing galvanic hemorrhoids to carry on of import research on electricity and magnetic attraction. He found that by pumping an electric current through a wire, a magnetic field was induced in a parallel wire. Faraday pressed on and in 1831, he showed that a moving magnet could bring forth electricity in a nearby wire. Other scientists meanwhile were bettering Volta # 8217 ; s hemorrhoids. They realized that each zinc-paper-silver sandwich was really a separate beginning of low-tension electricity. That penetration led to the development of single cells incorporating an anode of one metal and a cathode of another immersed in an electrolyte, much like present twenty-four hours batteries. Finally in the 1860 # 8217 ; s, George Leclanche of France developed what would be the precursor of the universe # 8217 ; s first widely used battery: the Zn C cell. The anode was a Zn and quicksilver alloyed rod. Zinc, which was the anode in Volta # 8217 ; s original cell, proved to be one of the best metals for this occupation. The cathode was a porous cup of crushed manganese dioxide and some C. Into the mix a C rod was inserted to move as the current aggregator. Both the anode and the cathode cup were plunged into a liquid solution of ammonium chloride, which acted as the electrolyte. The system was called a # 8220 ; wet cell. # 8221 ; Though Leclanche # 8217 ; s cell was rugged and cheap, it was finally replaced by the improved # 8220 ; dry cell # 8221 ; in the 1880 # 8217 ; s. The anode became the Zn can incorporate the cell, and the electrolyte became a paste instead than a liquid: fundamentally the Zn C cell that is known today. NEEDED TERMINOLOGY The battery being the footing of this research probe needs to be defined and explained. A battery, besides referred to as an electric cell, is a device that converts chemical energy into electricity. Batteries consist of two or more cells connected in series or parallel, average they are either connected caput to chase or tete-a-tete and tail-to-tail. All cells consist of a liquid, paste, or solid electrolyte and a positive electrode, and a negative electrode. The electrolyte is an ionic music director ; one of the electrodes will respond, bring forthing negatrons, while the other will accept negatrons. When the electrodes are connected to a device to be powered, called a burden, an electrical current flows. Batteries in which the chemicals can non be brought back into their original signifier one time the energy has been converted, are called primary cells or galvanic cells. Basically if a battery can non be recharged after being used it is called a primary cell. On the other manus batteries in which the chemicals can be reconstituted by go throughing an electric current through them in the way opposite that of normal cell operation are called secondary cells, rechargeable cells, or storage cells. ELECTRO CHEMISTRY BASICS Electrochemistry is the foundation on which batteries are built upon, and is hence necessary to understand. Electrochemistry is the portion of the scientific discipline of chemical science that trades with the interrelatedness of electrical currents, electromotive forces, chemical reactions, and with the common transition of chemical and electrical energy. In general, electrochemistry is the survey of chemical reactions that produce electrical effects and of the chemical phenomena that are caused by currents or electromotive forces. To understand why a battery fails after certain temperatures it is necessary to understand why batteries work in the first topographic point. Using general cognition it can be described that a battery works through a series of redox reactions. Such reactions consist of two parts ; an oxidization reaction, in which an negatron is lost, and a decrease reaction, in which an negatron is gained. When a oxidation-reduction reaction occurs inside a battery the oxidization reaction ever occurs at the anode and the decrease reaction occurs at the cathode. We so use this cognition in add-on to a chart of electromotive forces to infer the electric potency or figure of Vs that a battery can bring forth. The electrode potency is found with the simple equation EMF cell = EMF oxidization + EMFreduction where EMF stands for the electromotive forces ( See Appendix ) . This equation, nevertheless, does non use to this job every bit much as the undermentioned equation, known as Nernst s Law. The jurisprudence states that ef is equal to ( R x T x E ) over ( N x F ) , where ef equals the electromotive force, R is the gas invariable, T is the t emperature in Kelvin, E is the figure of negatrons produced, N is Avagadros figure, and F is Faradays changeless ( See Appendix ) . This equation will let me to prove the electromotive forces that are produced at lower temperatures. THE PROBLEM It is a normally known job that batteries tend to neglect when exposed to utmost temperatures. The job foremost arose when adult male started researching the outer bounds of the Earth s atmosphere. Batteries non able to defy utmost temperature can non be changed so as to be able to defy them ; nevertheless, certain batteries have been made specifically to defy those temperatures and are presently in usage by NASA, other Government, and some commercial applications. Once an object leaves the Earth s land, geothermic heat no longer has a important impact on its temperature, and hence must either rely on its ain heat or direct sunshine. Space is a great illustration of this job and, objects going nearer to the Sun, or in the Sun rays receive high sums of heat, while objects that are non in the Sun beams are highly cold. The National Aeronautics A ; Space Administration or NASA was one of the first to undertake this job. Factors THAT CAUSE THE PROBLEM There is but one factor that causes the job stated. That factor is temperature, and it can be regulated merely in the lab, and non anyplace outside of it. The concluding job that needs to be solved is non how do we modulate the temperature, but how do we forestall the temperature from impacting the chemicals inside the battery, more specifically the electrolyte. Factors THAT RELATE TO THE PROBLEM The factors that relate to the jobs include ; the battery s composing and get downing electromotive force, type of battery, length of exposure clip to high/low temperature, and run out topographic point upon the battery. First off battery composing varies between types of batteries, for illustration depending on the electrodes that a battery has, a certain electrolyte is chosen to be put in the battery, therefore different chemical reactions take topographic point and besides the reaction that the electrolyte has with temperature may change. Get downing electromotive force may play a function in how long it takes for the battery to go affected by the temperature. The length of the exposure clip may besides play a function in the battery s operation, if the exposure clip is non long plenty there may be non reaction on the battery. Finally, if the battery has a high/low drain topographic point upon itself it may do the consequences to be skewed. SOLUTIONS/POSSIBLE EXPIRIMENTS Although there is no redress for batteries, which have already been made, it is possible to do batteries that can defy utmost temperatures. Possible experiment to see which battery performs the best/worst under utmost conditions could be: 1. Measure at different temperature the electromotive force end product of a battery. 2. Use batteries in different temperatures outside. Of class when looking at the two experiments the 2nd is more likely to be that of a younger kid, but basically that is what we want to make: prove the battery as if it were in those mundane conditions. A more scientific attack is to hold a controlled experiment in which, we control our variable ( s ) . Hypothesis From research that I have been carry oning I have pieced together this hypothesis: Once the battery s temperature rises the EMF will increase, the when temperature continues to lift the EMF will fall, when the temperature decreases the battery s EMF will diminish quickly.