Science Posse

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Electrical Energy Storage

• Science Posse
• University of Wyoming

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Electrical Energy Storage

• How is electrical energy stored?
• By converting the electromagnetic energy into
  another form
• Storing the energy in another form is much easier
  than directly storing the electricity

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Electrical Energy Storage

• Some types of electrical energy storage are
• The battery Uses the electromagnetic properties
  of certain molecules to get electricity from
  chemical energy
• The fuel cell Electricity is used to break
  water into hydrogen and oxygen. When the
  electricity is needed again, the gasses are
  recombined, releasing water and electricity.
• The fly wheel Electricity is used in a motor to
  spin a heavy object (several pounds). Then the
  object is spinning rapidly, the motor is turned
  off, and the object spins on its own momentum.
  When electricity is needed, the spinning object
  is used to run a generator, thus creating
  electricity.

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The Battery

• The battery has three main parts
• The anode
• The part that has an excess of electrons, giving
  it a negative charge
• The cathode
• The part that has a shortage of electrons, giving
  it a positive charge
• The electrolyte
• A substance that forms a boundary between the
  anode and cathode.
• Full of ions.
• Ions are molecules or atoms that have an
  unbalanced number of electrons, so they have a
  charge of some sort.

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The Battery

• The anodes and cathodes are typically a
  conductive metal
• The electrolyte is a substance that is highly
  ionic like an acid or base (i.e. battery acid).
  
• Some household products make good electrolytes
  like lemon juice, salt water, vinegar, etc.

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The Battery How it Works

• The electrolyte is placed in between the anode
  and the cathode.
• A chemical reaction takes place where the
  electrolytes ions remove electrons from the
  cathode and give them to the anode.
• This creates the unbalance of electrons and the
  positive and negative charges on the cathode and
  anode

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The Battery How it Works

• When the battery is connected to an electric
  circuit, the excess of electrons of the anode are
  given a path to flow back to the cathode.
• This returns the battery to a balanced, neutral
  state.
• This is how a battery is drained.

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The Voltaic Pile

• Invented in 1800 by Alessandro Voltaire
• One of the first batteries
• Consists of several Voltaic Cells stacked on each
  other
• Each Voltaic Cell consists of a piece of copper,
  which acts as the cathode, a piece of zinc, which
  acts as the anode, and a piece of paper soaked in
  an electrolyte.

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The Voltaic Pile