The history of batteries

1800

Alessandro Volta invented the world's first battery.

1802

Dr William Krusek designed the first battery that was easy to manufacture.

1836

John Daniel improved the battery to provide a stable discharge current.

1859

Gaston Planté invented the rechargeable lead-acid battery.

1868

George Lacklander developed a battery using electrolyte.

188 1 year

J. Thiebaut patented dry battery.

1888

Dr Geissner invented the first dry battery.

1890

Thomas Edison invented rechargeable iron-nickel battery.

1896

Mass production of dry batteries in the United States

1896

Invented the d-type battery.

1899

Waldmar Jungner invented the nickel-cadmium battery.

19 10 year

Commercial production of rechargeable iron-nickel battery

19 1 1 year

China set up a factory to produce dry batteries and lead-acid batteries (battery factory of Shanghai Ministry of Communications)

19 14 years

Thomas Edison invented the alkaline battery.

1934

Schlecht and Akermann invented the sintered plate of nickel-cadmium battery.

1947

Neumann developed sealed nickel-cadmium batteries.

1949

Lew Urry (Energizer) developed a small alkaline battery.

1954

Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Darryl Chapin developed solar cells.

1956

Strength. Make the first 9 volt battery.

1956

China built the first nickel-cadmium battery factory (Fengyun Equipment Factory (755 Factory))

1960 or so

Union carbide company. Commercial production of alkaline batteries, China began to study alkaline batteries (jointly developed by Xi 'an Tsinghua Factory and other three companies).

1970 or so

Maintenance-free lead-acid batteries appear.

1970 or so

Primary lithium battery is very practical.

1976

Scientists at Philips Research Institute invented the Ni-MH battery.

1980 or so

A stable alloy for Ni-MH battery was developed.

1983

China began to study Ni-MH battery (Nankai University).

1987

The technology of nickel-cadmium battery has been improved in China, and the battery capacity has been increased by 40% by using foamed nickel.

Before 1987

Commercial production of primary lithium batteries in China

1989

The research of Ni-MH battery in China is included in the national plan.

Before 1990

Corner-type (chewing gum-type) batteries appeared,

1990 or so

Nickel-hydrogen batteries have been produced commercially.

199 1 year

Sony. Commercial production of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries

1992

Karl Kordesch, Josef Gsellmann and Klaus Tomantschger obtained patents for alkaline rechargeable batteries.

1992

Battery technology company produces alkaline rechargeable batteries.

1995

The commercial production of Ni-MH battery in China has begun to take shape.

1999

Commercial production of rechargeable lithium polymer battery

In 2000,

Commercial production of lithium-ion batteries in China

After 2000

Fuel cells and solar cells have become the focus of new energy development issues that the world pays attention to.

The history of battery development is from the birth of Daniel battery in 1836 to the invention of lead-acid battery in 1859, to the invention of silver oxide battery in 1883, to the commercialization of battery in 1888, to the invention of nickel-cadmium battery in 1899 and then to/kloc-0. However, after World War II, battery technology entered a period of rapid development. Firstly, in order to meet the needs of heavy-duty applications, an alkaline zinc-manganese battery, 195 1 year sealed nickel-cadmium battery, was developed. 1958, Harris proposed to use organic electrolyte as the electrolyte of primary lithium battery, which was used in military and civil fields in the early 1970s. Subsequently, based on environmental considerations, the research focus shifted to batteries. Nickel-cadmium batteries developed rapidly in 1980s after commercialization in the early 20th century.

With the enhancement of people's awareness of environmental protection, the use of toxic metals such as lead and cadmium is increasingly restricted, so it is necessary to find new rechargeable batteries that can replace traditional lead-acid batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries. Lithium-ion batteries naturally become one of the strong candidates.

Lithium-ion battery was invented around 1990. 199 1 year commercialization of lithium-ion batteries. 1995 invented polymer lithium-ion battery, 1999 commercialized. In modern society, the application range of batteries has developed from the starting power supply of flashlights, radios, cars and motorcycles in the 1940s to the current 40-50 uses. From electronic watches, CD players, mobile phones, MP3, MP4, cameras, camcorders, various remote controllers, razors, pistol drills, children's toys, etc. From emergency power supply in hospitals, hotels, supermarkets and telephone exchanges, to military batteries such as electric tools, tugboats, trailers, forklifts, wheelchairs, golf sports vehicles, electric bicycles, electric cars, wind power stations, missiles, submarines and torpedoes. There are also special batteries that can meet various special requirements. Battery has become an indispensable and convenient energy source in human society.

Development of batteries in China

The first battery factory in China was born in 19 1 1. 192 1 The first professional lead battery factory, Shanghai Battery Factory, was also built in Shanghai. 194 1 year began to produce zinc-manganese dry batteries and maintain lead-acid batteries in the telecommunications material factory affiliated to the Third Military Commission in Yan 'an. 1957, the chemical power supply research office of electrical materials Bureau of the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering was established. 1958 became the first professional research institute in China, namely the Chemical Power Supply Research Institute of the Ministry of Machinery (formerly Tianjin Power Supply Research Institute of the Ministry of Electronic Industry). 65438-0960, Fengyun Equipment Factory, the first alkaline battery factory in China, was officially accepted and put into production in Xinxiang, Henan. In the early 1990s, the country began to tackle the "863" project, which made the production of Ni-MH battery develop rapidly. In the future, China will begin to tackle key problems of "863" lithium-ion battery, hoping to promote the localization of lithium-ion battery and its materials.

Necessity of developing lithium-ion battery production in China

For the current battery industry in China, the main problems are environmental pollution and serious waste of resources. As far as environmental pollution is concerned, due to the low degree of automation and mechanization in China's battery industry, many enterprises mostly operate by hand, which leads to great pollution in the production process and great harm to workers' health. The dry battery industry is dubbed as "polluting enterprise" and "black industry". These pollutants mainly include MnO2 powder, HgO, asphalt smoke, soot, paraffin smoke and so on. Among them, mercury is the most highly toxic heavy metal, and a very small amount of mercury is very toxic to human body. At present, developed countries have announced that the production and import of mercury batteries will be banned from 1994. At present, most domestic manufacturers are still producing mercury batteries. The main pollutants in lead-acid battery industry are lead, lead oxide dust, acid mist and waste acid. Lead is also a toxic heavy metal. Chronic lead poisoning is mainly manifested as nervous system damage, renal dysfunction and anemia. The raw materials used in cadmium-nickel batteries are mostly powder, and there are also dust pollution problems. Moreover, cadmium is very toxic and can accumulate in kidneys and bones, causing renal dysfunction. In addition, calcium in bones is replaced by cadmium, which makes bones soft and painful. In addition, alkali fog and waste acid are also important pollutants. Copper rust and slurry seepage often occur in zinc-manganese dry batteries, and some MH-Ni batteries always appear alkali spraying or bursting in use. A large proportion of lead-acid batteries are still old-fashioned open-core batteries, and there is still gas-acid phenomenon in use.

A large number of discarded batteries waste a lot of useful materials. For example, silver batteries of dry batteries are basically not recycled in China, and the utilization effect of low-value zinc-manganese dry batteries is even worse.

In order to reduce pollution, protect the environment, maintain ecological balance, and protect the limited resources on the earth, we should expand the types of resources as much as possible, choose rich resources, and make use of resources that are conducive to environmental protection. Therefore, lithium-ion battery has become a kind of battery that must be developed in China.

Development history of alkaline Zn-Mn battery

So far, the development of Zn-Mn battery has experienced a long evolution process. As early as 1868, French engineer George Lackland used manganese dioxide and carbon powder as anode powder, pressed it into a porous ceramic cylinder, inserted a carbon rod current collector as anode, partially inserted a zinc rod into solution as cathode, used 20% ammonium chloride aqueous solution as electrolyte, and used a glass bottle as battery container, and made the first zinc-manganese wet battery. 1886, Gais changed the aqueous solution of ammonium chloride into a paste composed of ammonium chloride, zinc chloride, gypsum and water, and made the zinc sheet into a cylindrical container for the battery, which was sealed with paraffin, thus making the prototype of the original battery. Soon after, flour and starch were used as gelling agents of electrolyte solution, which greatly improved the portability of zinc-manganese battery and laid a good foundation for its industrial production and wide use. 1890 or so, this kind of battery is put into industrial production all over the world.

Zinc amalgam anode is adopted around 1870 to reduce zinc self-discharge. 1877 treated the carbon rod with wax to prevent the carbon rod from crawling and reduce the corrosion of the metal current collector.

1923 acetylene black was used to replace graphite powder, and the capacity was increased by 40%-50%. The application of electrolytic manganese dioxide in 1945 further improved the discharge performance of zinc-manganese battery. However, with the development of the times, ordinary alkaline zinc-manganese batteries can no longer meet the market demand.

As early as 100 years ago, it was proposed to use zinc as the negative electrode, MnO2 _ 2 as the positive electrode and KOH or NaOH as the electrolyte. In the long research process, it mainly focuses on four aspects: first, powder porous zinc electrode is used instead of sheet electrode to reduce the discharge current density and solve the shortcoming that zinc sheet is easy to be passivated in alkaline solution; Secondly, the reverse electrode structure is adopted to increase the filling amount of MnO2 and match the positive and negative electrode capacities; Step 3, amalgamate the zinc powder and add ZnO into the alkali solution to solve the corrosion of zinc in the alkali solution; The fourth is the improvement of sealing structure and sealing material to solve the phenomenon of alkali climbing.

It was not until the 1950 generation that alkaline zinc-manganese batteries were successfully developed on the basis of zinc-manganese dry batteries. It uses zinc powder as negative electrode, electrolytic manganese dioxide as positive electrode and NaOH or KOH as electrolyte, which greatly improves the performance of the battery. It is not only high in capacity, but also suitable for continuous discharge with large current. It also has excellent low temperature performance, storage performance and anti-leakage performance.

However, the previous alkaline manganese battery needs to control the gas content of negative zinc powder in alkaline solution. At that time, the amount of mercury used in batteries was very large, ranging from 2% to 6%. At the end of 1980s, with the strengthening of people's awareness of environmental protection, the research upsurge of mercury-free alkaline manganese batteries was set off, and finding organic or inorganic corrosion inhibitors to replace mercury and alloy elements (mainly al, Bi, in and Pb) in zinc powder became the main research direction. By the mid-1990s, mercury-free alkaline manganese batteries had entered the market.

Meanwhile, rechargeable alkaline Zn-Mn secondary batteries have been widely studied since 1960s. After more than 30 years of research, a breakthrough has been made, but it has not been commercialized because of its shallow discharge depth and short cycle life.

Since 2 1 century, alkaline Zn-Mn batteries have developed rapidly and have a tendency to replace ordinary Zn-Mn batteries. At the same time, the development of electrical appliances puts forward higher requirements for high capacity and high current discharge of alkaline manganese batteries. Therefore, the research of alkaline manganese battery in the future will mainly focus on high power and heavy load discharge performance, battery capacity improvement and storage life improvement.