Batteries

Key Concepts

Battery: galvanic (voltaic) cells in a series

Types of Cells:

• Primary cells: cannot be recharged

• Secondary cells: can be recharged

During discharge of any cell:

• The cell is a galvanic cell (spontaneous redox reaction occurs).

• Maximum voltage that can be delivered by the cell during discharge is equal to the electrode potential for the spontaneous redox reaction.

During recharge of a secondary cell:

• The cell is an electrolytic cell (non-spontaneous redox reaction occurs).

• The voltage that needs to be applied during recharge must be greater than the electrode potential for the spontaneous redox reaction.

Examples of Batteries

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Related AUS-e-TUTE Topics

Fuel Cells

Oxidation and Reduction

Oxidation Numbers (States)

Writing cell half-equations (ions)

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Redox Reactions

Redox Equations

E^o: oxidation & reduction

E⁰: redox reaction (emf)

Spontaneous & Non-spontaneous redox reactions

Electrolyte Strength

Displacement Reactions (Activity Series)

Electrochemical (Voltaic/Galvanic) Cells

Corrosion

Electrolytic Cells

Faraday Laws of Electrolysis

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