how do car batteries work?wat chemicals r car batteries made of?

Question

wat r the chemicals found in car batteries

Answer 1

In the electrolyt are Pb2+ ions which have in neigbourhood sulfate ions and sulfuric acid.


When loading:
the plus pole is oxidizing them to Pb4+, which is forming an spoungy cover on the anode as solid lead-dioxid PbO2,

and the minus pole is reducing them to lead Pb, which is forming a voluminous cover on the cathode.


When unloading:
the covers on anode and cathode dissolve and form Pb2+ again.


This is a simplified description, where the electrons come from and go to. In reality there are complicated diffusion and crystallization processes involved. So the lead accumulator gets old, when the anode and the cathode "forget", in which way to deposit their layers of PbO2 and Pb, respectively.To keep the electrodes in shape, an accumulator always should be stored fully loaded.

Answer 2

Batteries are all over the place -- in our cars, our PCs, laptops, portable MP3 players and cell phones. A battery is essentially a can full of chemicals that produce electrons. Chemical reactions that produce electrons are called electrochemical reactions. If you look at any battery, you'll notice that it has two terminals. One terminal is marked (+), or positive, while the other is marked (-), or negative. In a large car battery, there are two heavy lead posts that act as the terminals.
Electrons collect on the negative terminal of the battery. If you connect a wire between the negative and positive terminals, the electrons will flow from the negative to the positive terminal as fast as they can (and wear out the battery very quickly -- this also tends to be dangerous, especially with large batteries, so it is not something you want to be doing). Normally, you connect some type of load to the battery using the wire. The load might be something like a light bulb, a motor or an electronic circuit like a radio.Inside the battery itself, a chemical reaction produces the electrons. The speed of electron production by this chemical reaction (the battery's internal resistance) controls how many electrons can flow between the terminals. Electrons flow from the battery into a wire, and must travel from the negative to the positive terminal for the chemical reaction to take place. That is why a battery can sit on a shelf for a year and still have plenty of power -- unless electrons are flowing from the negative to the positive terminal, the chemical reaction does not take place. Once you connect a wire, the reaction starts.

Lead-acid battery - Used in automobiles, the electrodes are made of lead and lead-oxide with a strong acidic electrolyte (rechargeable). Metal-chloride battery - This is used in electric vehicles

Answer 3

Baterries work because of free electrons. These are electrons that can drift from atom to atom. The car battery consists of plates of two different types of metals, usually zinc and lead. One set of plates is loaded up with free electrons (charging) which then begin to drift to the other set of plates through a liquid called an electrolyte, which in this case is an acid solution. The electrolyte allows electrons to drift in one direction but not the other. When an electron leaves the charged side, it leaves a tiny hole. This process erodes the plate over time which is why a car battery can only be charged so many times before the one set of plates is too eroded to hold a charge anymore.

Answer 4

they work like any other battery. a reaction takes place between the sulfuric acid and Zn which releases electrons which creates a current which makes things run

Answer 5

most car batteries are still classic lead-acid batteries

they are made, as the name suggests, of lead and acid

the wikipedia has a very good article that describes the chemistry, workings, and application of lead-acid batteries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_acid_battery

enjoy

Answer 6

Try this link:
http://www.aip.org/pnu/1996/split/pnu274-2.htm