Whimsical Learning: Why using batteries makes you just like JIGSAW

Ok so today my post is going to be a little short because, well, I’m not doing so hot mental health wise and my body is feeling the effects from it. So today’s whimsical learning is about something I’ve been reading and learning about for months while I walk on my walking pad: batteries.

Holy shit there is so much going on in batteries.

First let’s try to explain how a battery works. Listen. I am not a battery engineer but this shit is cool as fuck so I’m gonna do my best. My understanding of a battery goes like this: A battery has two ends and gap between them.

Those parts are the Cathode, Anode, Separator (the thing between the two), and the electrolyte. I would say electrolyte solution but we’ll get to that.

So let’s think of it like this. Imagine a battery is a SAW trap. The charged lithium ions are basically the victims trapped in the basement. They can see out a small window that there is a shining, glimmering hopeful place just out of reach. They want to go there, so bad.

But then a switch flips, the battery is on and this tunnel opens up right? PASSAGE. Safe, sweet passage. They are thirsty for it, starved from their isolation, desperate to escape. They rush down the tunnel into that sweet sweet paradise the Cathode, giving up all their energy along the way.

Only to lose all hope again once the battery is plugged back in to charge and they are forced, kicking and screaming, back down the tunnel into the anode. “NO DONT MAKE ME GO BACK THERE,” they say. The battery doesn’t care, the battery delights in using their suffering to let you watch Reels and doomscroll.

And that’s how batteries work!

All the cool science really revolves around changing one of those pieces out for a different material.

When you hear about Silicon Carbon, Carbon, or Graphite batteries *that* is the anode they’re discussing changing. The Anode is basically these sheets of materials that trap the lithium ions between them. That’s the basement prison.

When you hear about Sodium batteries or other Lithium materials, what they’re talking about is the Cathode, where that lives when it’s discharged vs the anode when it’s charged. That’s the house they think they’re going to be safe at if they can just escape.

And when you hear people talk about solid state batteries, the holy grail, they’re usually talking about replacing the electrolyte solution through which these poor ions attempt to escape.

Currently the most common electrolyte solution is a lithium salt liquid. It is… let’s say highly volatile and might allow the lithium ions a rather violent escape route if the battery is compromised in any way.

So Solid State batteries switch out this explosive medium for, hopefully, something that allows the ions to flow through it without being an explosive liquid. You probably haven’t heard of any of these materials for constructing that escape tunnel yet but basically they are: sulfide based ones, garnet based ones, polymers (plastics) mixed with lithium slats) and so on. Perhaps the most famous one is “ceramics” which can actually be either sulfide or oxide based. It’s usually oxide based.

Point is, there’s a ton of super cool science going on out there to let you torture ions endlessly to power your devices. Happy browsing!