Battery, do you know how does it work?

Batteries are everywhere. The modern world is dependent on these portable sources of energy, which are found in everything from mobile devices to hearing aids to cars. 

But despite their prevalence in people's daily lives, batteries often go overlooked. Think about it: Do you really know how a battery works? Could you explain it to someone else?

What is Battery made of?

Batteries contain three basic parts: electrodes, an electrolyte and a separator. There are two electrodes in every battery. Both are made of conductive materials but serve different roles. One electrode is cathode which connects to the positive end of the battery and is where the electrical current leaves (or electrons enter) the battery during discharge, which is when the battery is being used to power something. The other electrode, known as the anode, connects to the negative end of the battery and is where the electrical current enters (or electrons leave) the battery during discharge.


Between these electrodes, as well as inside them, is the electrolyte. This is a liquid or gel-like substance that contains electrically charged particles, or ions. The ions combine with the materials that make up the electrodes, producing chemical reactions that allow a battery to generate an electric current.

The final part of the battery is separator which is straight forward. The separator's role is to keep the anode and the cathode separated from each other inside the battery. Without a separator, the two electrodes would come into contact, which would create a short circuit and prevent the battery from working properly.

How does a Battery work?

To envision how a battery works, picture yourself putting alkaline batteries, like double AAs, into a flashlight. When you put those batteries into the flashlight and then turn it on, what you're really doing is completing a circuit. The stored chemical energy in the battery converts to electrical energy, which travels out of the battery and into the base of the flashlight's bulb, causing it to light up. Then, the electric current re-enters the battery, but at the opposite end from where it came out originally.

All parts of the battery work together to make the flashlight light up. The electrodes in the battery contain atoms of certain conducting materials. For instance, in an alkaline battery, the anode is typically made of zinc, and manganese dioxide acts as the cathode. And the electrolyte between and inside those electrodes contains ions. When these ions meet up with the electrodes' atoms, certain electrochemical reactions take place between the ions and the electrodes' atoms.

The series of chemical reactions that occurs in the electrodes are collectively known as oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions. In a battery, the cathode is known as the oxidizing agent because it accepts electrons from the anode. The anode is known as the reducing agent, because it loses electrons.  

Ultimately, these reactions result in the flow of ions between the anode and the cathode, as well as the freeing of electrons from the atoms of the electrode.

These free electrons congregate inside the anode (the bottom, flat part of an alkaline battery). As a result, the two electrodes have different charges: The anode becomes negatively charged as electrons are released, and the cathode becomes positively charged as electrons (which are negatively charged) are consumed. This difference in charge causes the electrons to want to move toward the positively charged cathode. However, they don't have a way to get there inside the battery because the separator prevents them from doing so.

When you flick the switch on your flashlight, all that changes. The electrons now have a path to get to the cathode. But first, they must pass through the base of your flashlight's bulb. The circuit is completed when the electric current re-enters the battery through the top of the battery at the cathode.

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How to get the most of your Android Smartphone's battery

 

 Smartphone batteries don't last forever but there are lots of things you can do behind-the-scenes to make your Android last longer. Let's explore how to increase battery on your smartphone.

 

How does batteries work on Android

 

First, some background: most smartphones have either a lithium-ion battery or a lithium-polymer battery. Both are actually lithium-ion though, and as such, do not have a 'memory', which means you can charge them from any level – you don't have to fully discharge them before charging them up – and you don't have to charge them all the way to 100 percent.

 

In fact, these types of batteries suffer from low voltage problems, so it's actually better to partially charge them (say, from 20 percent to 90 percent) than to fully charge and fully drain them. Battery care is always open for debate though, so for every accepted tip there will be someone that says it makes no difference. Just find the ones that work for you and you can increase battery on your Android device.

 

Black wallpaper can increase battery

 

If your phone has an AMOLED screen (like most Samsung devices), use a dark-colored background. Black wallpaper can increase battery life because AMOLED screens only illuminate the colored pixels. Black pixels are unlit, so the more black pixels you have, or the more darker pixels, the less power is needed to light them up.

 

To download a completely black wallpaper, tap the link here. Now, save the picture and go into your Settings. From there tap Wallpaper hit Choose wallpaper and scroll down to Gallery. You should be able to find the black wallpaper you just saved. Hit set to wallpaper and lock screen.

 

Doze Mode

 

Doze mode has been around since Android Marshmallow, but with Nougat, it's been much improved. Before, Doze would only work when the smartphone has been stationary for a while. But now, it can also work when it's being moved around (in your bag or pocket while you're on the go, for example). The screen just needs to be off to work.

 

Doze mode essentially just shuts down things you're not using depending on how long it has been since you've touched your phone. Network connection is severed and syncing only happens during specific intervals. When you're away from your phone even longer, more things are stopped, like GPS, Wi-Fi scanning and all syncing.

 

Turn off Google hotwords

 

Stop your phone from always listening. Google's OK Google voice searching is a fantastic and often very functional feature. The problem is that it can wreak havoc with your battery. Especially if you don't actually use it or only use it occasionally.

 

Go into Google settings from your app drawer and tap Voice heading. On the next page, select OK Google detection. In this menu, the best option for battery life would be to untick all the boxes, but if you are a fan of OK Google, just tick the From the Google app box to ensure your device is only listening when you're in the Google app.

 Don't let your apps fall behind the times

 

Keep your apps updated. There's a reason developers constantly update apps, and most of the time it's for memory or battery optimization. Keeping your apps updated also means you have the best optimizations available. Likewise, delete old apps you no longer use, because these may be running background processes that chew up RAM and battery life.

 

 

Once you've ensured your apps are up-to-date you can go through them individually and check if they're optimized for battery life. This can be done quite quickly. Just go into your Settings and tap Battery. From there hit the menu button (three dots at the top right of your screen) and go to Battery optimization. From there you can see which apps are optimized and change them. You can only change the non-essential system apps.

 

Use the 'Lite' versions of apps

 

To save battery life, not to mention mobile data, you can take advantage of 'Lite' versions of popular apps. These are stripped down to their essential features and designed to be simpler and more economical than their full counterparts. Facebook and Messenger both have Lite apps available in the Play Store. Skype also has a Lite app in the Play Store, but it may be unstable as it is technically unreleased. For services like Gmail, Twitter and Instagram, there is no Lite app available to download.

 

Don't use adaptive/auto brightness

 

Don't use display auto-brightness. It may sound useful, but auto-brightness is usually way brighter than you really need. It's better to manually set the brightness to a level that is low but comfortable, and bump it up when necessary. This is one of the best ways to improve your battery life, because the screen is one of the biggest battery suckers.

 

To ensure your adaptive/auto brightness is off go into the Quick settings in many devices and you should see Auto with a box above and a checkmark in it. Uncheck this box and your auto will be off. With some devices you might need to go into the Settings then tap Display. From there you should see Brightness level and in it you'll find the auto settings.

 

Turn off vibrate and haptic feedback to save battery

 

Switch off vibrate. Unless you really need that added awareness, turn off vibration alerts for incoming calls. It actually takes more power to vibrate your phone than it does to ring it. Turn off haptic feedback too (that buzz you get from typing on the keyboard). Sure it feels cool, but it doesn't really add anything to your experience, and it's another battery drainer.

                                                                                                                                

Set your 'Do Not Disturb' or 'sleep' schedule

 

Set sleep times or blocking mode to switch off Wi-Fi and mobile data when you don't need them. If your phone is basically off limits at work, set your device to not ring, vibrate or connect to the internet while you're at work. Many phones have a Do Not Disturb setting for just this purpose.

 

Likewise, you can set your phone to airplane mode when you're asleep or use sleep or blocking modes to set up limits for what your phone does during certain times of the day, whether that's while you're asleep, at work or in a meeting. Cool apps such as IFTTT let you create rules that can help you save battery life too.

You don't need to be connected 24/7

 

Turn off GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi and mobile data whenever you don't need them. Turning off location data, or changing your location settings to use Wi-Fi or 3G data rather than GPS works perfectly well. This will increase battery on your Android device.

 

Only turn on Bluetooth and NFC as long as you need them (even though they consume very little power), and there's no need to have both Wi-Fi and mobile data turned on at all times, especially if you know exactly when you'll need one or the other.

 

If you use Wi-Fi a lot though, say at home and at work, then it makes sense to keep set your Wi-Fi to 'Always on during sleep' as this uses less power than to have your Wi-Fi reconnecting every time you wake your phone. Most of these can be found in your Quick settings.

 

Don't get bogged down by widgets

 

Ditch widgets you don't need, especially those connected to the internet, such as weather widgets. If you have multiple widgets across several home screens, which are constantly syncing and updating (Twitter, reddit, weather, Gmail and the like), you're not doing your battery any favors. Just hit the apps when you need them.

 

If you already have a bunch of useless widgets on your device then you just need to do a couple of things and they'll be gone. Long press on a blank space on your home screen. Now drag the widget you don't need into the trash bin at the top or bottom of your screen (it depends on the brand).

 

Explore the battery saving features on your phone

 

All ROMs, whether stock Android, OEM UIs such as TouchWiz, or custom ROMs like CyanogenMod, have various settings in the menu to help conserve or optimize battery consumption.

 

HTC has Extreme Power Saving Mode, Samsung has Ultra Power Saving Mode, Sony has STAMINA mode and so on. Find these various options for your device and ROM and make them work for you.

 

Even if your phone doesn't have layers of battery saving features like some (or you simply don't want disable so many features), at least make use of the basic battery saver mode.

 

Don't fall into the auto-sync trap

 

Turn off auto-syncing for Google accounts. If you don't need every single Google account updated every 15 minutes, just go into Settings and Google account and turn off auto-sync for those apps you don't need constantly updated.

 

Some apps – like email – let you manually refresh when you launch them, rather than running multiple auto-refreshes throughout the day when you may not need them to. The same goes for Twitter, Reddit and co. Unless you need constant updates or push notifications (like for Facebook or your calendar) just sync when you actually use the app.

 

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