How are batteries made?

Question

just curious

Answer 1

A battery stores electricity for future use. It develops voltage from the chemical reaction produced when two unlike materials (electrodes), such as positive and negative metal plates, are immersed in the electrolyte which in the case of a car is a solution of sulfuric acid and water. The electrodes for a car battery are lead and lead dioxide.

As a battery discharges, the lead plates become more chemically alike, the acid becomes weaker, and the voltage drops. Eventually the battery is so discharged that it can no longer deliver electricity at a useful voltage. For a car battery, the process is reversible.

The worlds first document battery was constructed by Allesandro Volta in around 1791. It was made with two probes of different metals and frog muscle tissue. When Volta probed the frog's leg, it twitched due to conduction of electricity. Volta later replaced the frog's muscle tissue with paper soaked with salt water and sandwiched it between zinc and silver. He made a stack of these sandwiches and created a better battery.

A set of two different types of metal sandwiching an electrolyte is called a cell. Many cells stacked together form a "battery" because as Webster's defines it (5th sense of the word) a battery is "a number of similar articles, items, or devices arranged, connected, or used together".

A car's lead acid battery has 6 cells. Each cell has, by nature, a voltage around 2V. Hence the 12V in the car.

Here's a really good video showing how to make a battery with lemons, a copper penny, and a zinc coated galvanized nail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY9qcDCFe...

Answer 2

In a factory. Pieces of metal and plastic and the correct chemicals are put together.

See wikipedia for more details.

Answer 3

A battery is essentially a can full of chemicals that produce electrons.

http://www.rayovac.com/wizard/battery_ho...

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Battery....