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Learn About Batteries

Basics You Should Know

Addresses the mechanics of the battery and deals with chemistries, charging and discharging techniques.

Introduction

BU-001: Sharing Battery Knowledge
BU-002: Introduction
BU-003: Dedication

Crash Course on Batteries

BU-101: When Was the Battery Invented?
BU-102: Early Innovators
BU-103: Global Battery Markets
BU-103a: Battery Breakthroughs: Myth or Fact?
BU-104: Getting to Know the Battery
BU-104a: Comparing the Battery with Other Power Sources
BU-104b: Battery Building Blocks
BU-104c: The Octagon Battery – What makes a Battery a Battery
BU-105: Battery Definitions and what they mean
BU-106: Advantages of Primary Batteries
BU-106a: Choices of Primary Batteries
BU-107: Comparison Table of Secondary Batteries

Battery Types

BU-201: How does the Lead Acid Battery Work?
BU-201a: Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM)
BU-201b: Gel Lead Acid Battery
BU-202: New Lead Acid Systems
BU-203: Nickel-based Batteries
BU-204: How do Lithium Batteries Work?
BU-205: Types of Lithium-ion
BU-206: Lithium-polymer: Substance or Hype?
BU-208: Cycling Performance
BU-209: How does a Supercapacitor Work?
BU-210: How does the Fuel Cell Work?
BU-210a: Why does Sodium-sulfur need to be heated
BU-210b: How does the Flow Battery Work?
BU-211: Alternate Battery Systems
BU-212: Future Batteries
BU-214: Summary Table of Lead-based Batteries
BU-215: Summary Table of Nickel-based Batteries
BU-216: Summary Table of Lithium-based Batteries
BU-217: Summary Table of Alternate Batteries
BU-218: Summary Table of Future Batteries

Packaging and Safety

BU-301: A look at Old and New Battery Packaging
BU-301a: Types of Battery Cells
BU-302: Series and Parallel Battery Configurations
BU-303: Confusion with Voltages
BU-304: Why are Protection Circuits Needed?
BU-304a: Safety Concerns with Li-ion
BU-304b: Making Lithium-ion Safe
BU-304c: Battery Safety in Public
BU-305: Building a Lithium-ion Pack
BU-306: What is the Function of the Separator?
BU-307: How does Electrolyte Work?
BU-308: Availability of Lithium
BU-309: How does Graphite Work in Li-ion?
BU-310: How does Cobalt Work in Li-ion?
BU-311: Battery Raw Materials

Charge Methods

BU-401: How do Battery Chargers Work?
BU-401a: Fast and Ultra-fast Chargers
BU-402: What Is C-rate?
BU-403: Charging Lead Acid
BU-404: What is Equalizing Charge?
BU-405: Charging with a Power Supply
BU-406: Battery as a Buffer
BU-407: Charging Nickel-cadmium
BU-408: Charging Nickel-metal-hydride
BU-409: Charging Lithium-ion
BU-409a: Why do Old Li-ion Batteries Take Long to Charge?
BU-409b: Charging Lithium Iron Phosphate
BU-410: Charging at High and Low Temperatures
BU-411: Charging from a USB Port
BU-412: Charging without Wires
BU-413: Charging with Solar, Turbine
BU-413a: How to Store Renewable Energy in a Battery
BU-414: How do Charger Chips Work?
BU-415: How to Charge and When to Charge?

Discharge Methods

BU-501: Basics about Discharging
BU-501a: Discharge Characteristics of Li-ion
BU-502: Discharging at High and Low Temperatures
BU-503: Determining Power Deliver by the Ragone Plot
BU-504: How to Verify Sufficient Battery Capacity

The Battery and You

Looks at battery personalities and discusses ways to get the most out of the packs. We talk about priming, storing and recycling.

"Smart" Battery

BU-601: How does a Smart Battery Work?
BU-602: How does a Battery Fuel Gauge Work?
BU-603: How to Calibrate a “Smart” Battery
BU-603a: Calibrating SMBus Batteries with Impedance Tracking
BU-604: How to Process Data from a “Smart” Battery
Testing and Calibrating Smart Batteries

From Birth to Retirement

BU-701: How to Prime Batteries
BU-702: How to Store Batteries
BU-703: Health Concerns with Batteries
BU-704: How to Transport Batteries
BU-704a: Shipping Lithium-based Batteries by Air
BU-704b: CAUTION & Overpack Labels
BU-704c: Class 9 Label
BU-704d: NFPA 704 Rating
BU-704e: Battery for Personal and Fleet Use
BU-705: How to Recycle Batteries
BU-705a: Battery Recycling as a Business
BU-706: Summary of Do's and Don'ts

How To Prolong Battery Life

General

BU-801: Setting Battery Performance Standards
BU-801a: How to Rate Battery Runtime
BU-801b: How to Define Battery Life
BU-802: What Causes Capacity Loss?
BU-802a: How does Rising Internal Resistance affect Performance?
BU-802b: What does Elevated Self-discharge Do?
BU-802c: How Low can a Battery be Discharged?
BU-803: Can Batteries Be Restored?
BU-803a: Cell Matching and Balancing
BU-803b: What causes Cells to Short?
BU-803c: Loss of Electrolyte

Lead Acid

BU-804: How to Prolong Lead-acid Batteries
BU-804a: Corrosion, Shedding and Internal Short
BU-804b: Sulfation and How to Prevent it
BU-804c: Acid Stratification and Surface Charge
BU-805: Additives to Boost Flooded Lead Acid
BU-806: Tracking Battery Capacity and Resistance as part of Aging
BU-806a: How Heat and Loading affect Battery Life

Nickel-based

BU-807: How to Restore Nickel-based Batteries
BU-807a: Effect of Zapping

Lithium-ion

BU-808: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries
BU-808a: How to Awaken a Sleeping Li-ion
BU-808b: What Causes Li-ion to Die?
BU-808c: Coulombic and Energy Efficiency with the Battery
BU-809: How to Maximize Runtime
BU-810: What Everyone Should Know About Aftermarket Batteries
BU-811: Assuring Minimum Operational Reserve Energy (MORE)

Battery Testing and Monitoring

BU-901: Fundamentals in Battery Testing
BU-901b: How to Measure the Remaining Useful Life of a Battery
BU-902: How to Measure Internal Resistance
BU-902a: How to Measure CCA
BU-903: How to Measure State-of-charge
BU-904: How to Measure Capacity
BU-905: Testing Lead Acid Batteries
BU-905a: Testing Starter Batteries in Vehicles
BU-905b: Knowing when to Replace a Starter Battery
BU-906: Testing Nickel-based Batteries
BU-907: Testing Lithium-based Batteries
BU-907a: Battery Rapid-test Methods
BU-907b: Advancements in Battery Testing
BU-907c: Cloud Analytics in Batteries
BU-908: Battery Management System (BMS)
BU-909: Battery Test Equipment
BU-910: How to Repair a Battery Pack
BU-911: How to Repair a Laptop Battery
BU-915: Testing Battery with EIS
BU-916: Deep Battery Diagnostics
BU-917: In Search for Performance Transparency with Batteries
BU-918: Battery Endurance Plan

Batteries as Power Source

Studies the battery in portable and stationary applications as well as in electric powertrains. We look at the kinetic power and cost of the battery in comparison to fossil fuel.

Amazing Value of a Battery

BU-1001: Batteries in Industries
BU-1002: Electric Powertrain, then and now
BU-1002a: Hybrid Electric Vehicles and the Battery
BU-1002b: Environmental Benefit of the Electric Powertrain
BU-1003: Electric Vehicle (EV)
BU-1003a: Battery Aging in an Electric Vehicle (EV)
BU-1004: Charging an Electric Vehicle
BU-1005: Does the Fuel Cell-powered Vehicle have a Future?
BU-1006: Cost of Mobile and Renewable Power
BU-1007: Net Calorific Value
BU-1008: Working towards Sustainability
BU-1009: Battery Paradox - Afterword

Information

BU-1101: Glossary
BU-1102: Abbreviations
BU-1103: Bibliography
BU-1104: About the Author
BU-1105: About Cadex (Sponsor)
BU-1106: Author's Creed
BU-1107: Disclaimer
BU-1108: Copyright

Learning Tools

BU-1501 Battery History
BU-1502 Basics about Batteries
BU-1503 How to Maintain Batteries
BU-1504 Battery Test & Analyzing Devices
BU-1505 Short History of Cadex

Battery Articles

Perception of a Battery Tester
Green Deal
Risk Management in Batteries
Predictive Test Methods for Starter Batteries
Why Mobile Phone Batteries do not last as long as an EV Battery
Battery Rapid-test Methods
How to Charge Li-ion with a Parasitic Load
Ultra-fast Charging
Assuring Safety of Lithium-ion in the Workforce
Diagnostic Battery Management
Tweaking the Mobile Phone Battery
Battery Test Methods
Battery Testing and Safety
How to Make Battery Performance Transparent
Battery Diagnostics On-the-fly
Making Battery State-of-health Transparent
Batteries will eventually die, but when and how?
Why does Pokémon Go rob so much Battery Power?
How to Care for the Battery
Tesla’s iPhone Moment — How the Powerwall will Change Global Energy Use
Painting the Battery Green by giving it a Second Life
Charging without Wires — A Solution or Laziness
What everyone should know about Battery Chargers
A Look at Cell Formats and how to Build a good Battery
Battery Breakthroughs — Myth or Fact?
Rapid-test Methods that No Longer Work
Shipping Lithium-based Batteries by Air
How to make Batteries more Reliable and Longer Lasting
What causes Lithium-ion to die?
Safety of Lithium-ion Batteries
Recognizing Battery Capacity as the Missing Link
Managing Batteries for Warehouse Logistics
Caring for your Starter Battery
Giving Batteries a Second Life
How to Make Batteries in Medical Devices More Reliable
Possible Solutions for the Battery Problem on the Boeing 787
Impedance Spectroscopy Checks Battery Capacity in 15 Seconds
How to Improve the Battery Fuel Gauge
Examining Loading Characteristics on Primary and Secondary Batteries

Language Pool

BU-001: Compartir conocimiento sobre baterías
BU-002: Introducción
BU-003: Dedicatoria
BU-104: Conociendo la Batería
BU-302: Configuraciones de Baterías en Serie y Paralelo

Batteries in a Portable World book

Change-log of “Batteries in a Portable World,” 4th edition: Chapters 1 - 3
Change-log of “Batteries in a Portable World,” 4th edition: Chapters 4 - 10
Does the Battery Fuel Gauge Lie?
Weird and Wonderful Batteries
Will Secondary Batteries replace Primaries?
Advancements in Lead Acid
Can the Lead-acid Battery Compete in Modern Times?
Understanding Lithium-ion
Pouch Cell - Small but not Trouble Free
Lithium-ion Safety Concerns
Will the Reusable Alkaline Battery have a Future?
How does Internal Resistance affect Performance?
Non-correctable Battery Problems
How to Service Two-way Radio Batteries
How to Service Cell Phone Batteries
Industrial Applications
Computerized Battery Testing
Why do Different Test Methods Provide Dissimilar Readings?
Wheeled and Stationary
Starting is Easy, but can I Steer and Brake?
Are Hybrid Cars Here to Stay?
The Cost of Portable Power
The Future Battery
Battery Testing Equipment
Battery Fuel Gauge: Factual or Fallacy?
What's the Best Battery?
Four Renegades of Battery Failure
The Secrets of Battery Runtime
Modern Lead Battery Systems
Is Lithium-ion the Ideal Battery?
The High-power Lithium-ion
The Smart Battery
Will the Fuel Cell have a Second Life?
The Battery and the Digital Load
Wireless Communications
Memory: Myth or Fact?
Portable Computing
Advanced Battery Analyzers
Rapid Testing Portable Batteries
Observing Batteries in Everyday Life
What Causes Car Batteries to Fail?
Is the Electric Car Mature?
Batteries against Fossil Fuel
Is Li-ion the Solution for the Electric Vehicle?
Battery Statistics
BU-1109: Links to Cadex website and Battery University