History of the Battery

In this blog post, we look at the history of batteries and provide a high-level overview of the different battery types that are currently available.

We often get questions from people who try to find their way in the world of batteries. With the many different battery chemistries and types available, it is hard to understand which is which. And, more important, which battery is suitable for you.

This is the first in a series of blogs to answer that question.

Invention

We begin our history of the battery in the 18th century. From the midst of that century onwards experimenters used Leyden Jars to store electrical energy. Soon experimenters started hooking multiple Leyden Jars together to increase capacity. Benjamin Franklin is likely the first to have called such a group of Leyden Jars an “electrical battery”. Where the term battery is derived from same term used in the military for several artillery pieces used together.

In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, which was the first true battery. Other than the Leyden Jars, Volta’s voltaic pile stored and released its charge though a chemical reaction rather than a physical one.

The lead-acid battery, still the most common battery type today, was invented in 1859 by Gaston Panté. Up to that point, all batteries would be permanently drained when their chemical reactants were spent. The lead-acid battery was the first rechargeable battery.

Several battery types have been invented since, such as nickel-iron, nickel-cadmium, nickel metal-hydride and alkaline batteries. But the one that is more relevant to discuss here is the invention of the lithium-ion battery. While experimentation with lithium batteries began as early as 1912, it took until the mid-1970s for the first viable rechargeable lithium-ion battery to be patented by Michael Stanley Wittingham. The first commercial lithium-ion battery was developed in 1991.

Lead-acid batteries

Originally invented more than 150 years ago, lead-acid batteries are still widely used today. The main types of lead-acid batteries are Flooded and Valve Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA), also referred to as Sealed Lead-Acid. There are two primary types of VRLA batteries: Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) and gel batteries.

Flooded or ‘wet cell’ lead-acid batteries

Flooded lead-acid batteries are still the most common type of lead-acid batteries in use today. They are called ‘flooded’ because they contain a liquid electrolyte. The electrolyte is a mixture of sulfuric acid and water. This type of battery is cheap, but it requires maintenance: distilled water needs to be added regularly. And because they contain fluids, they can only be mounted upright.

Gel batteries

Although gel and AGM batteries are both valve regulated, they are built quite different. Gel batteries use silica to turn sulfuric acid into a jelly like substance (hence the name ‘gel’), which is then used as the electrolyte. Unlike flooded batteries, gel batteries do not have to be kept upright, and they are more resistant to shock and vibration.

Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries

AGM batteries uses fiberglass mesh between the battery plates. The fiberglass holds the electrolyte in place through capillary action – similar to how water creeps up a towel when put in a bathtub. AGM batteries are maintenance-free and “spill-proof”. AGM batteries do not have to be kept upright and are more resistant to shock and vibration than gel batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries

In all lithium-ion batteries, the anode (-) and cathode (+) can store lithium ions. Energy is stored and released as lithium ions travel between the anode and cathode through the electrolyte. While charging, lithium ions move from the positive side of the battery to the negative side. And when discharging the battery, the ions move in the reverse direction.

A Battery Management System (BMS) is an essential component in a lithium-ion battery. While lithium-ion batteries can operate without a BMS, it is needed to ensure the battery cells stay within safe operating limits. To do that, a good BMS monitors individual battery cell voltage, charge or discharge current, state of charge and temperature of the battery – and ensure all values stay within safe limits.

There are many different types of lithium-ion batteries. Most use graphite as their anode material, and are identified by the material used for their cathode:

  1. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 or LFP)
  2. Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LCO)
  3. Lithium Manganese Oxide (LMO)
  4. Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC)
  5. Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminium Oxide (NCA)

There is one common type of lithium-ion battery that uses a different type of anode material:

  1. Lithium Titanate (LTO)

One of the main advantages of lithium-ion batteries over lead-acid batteries is that they have higher power density. That said, the characteristics of the various types of lithium-ion batteries vary wildly. We will investigate them in detail in one of the following posts in this series.

Overview of the series

  1. History of the battery (this blog)
  2. Lead-acid batteries: Flooded, Gel and AGM
  3. Lithium-ion batteries: Chemistries compared
  4. Lithium-ion batteries: Prismatic, Cylindrical and Pouch cells
  5. Lithium-ion vs. lead-acid
  6. The advantages of LiFePO4