What is a dry cell? What is the difference between dry cells and lithium batteries?

Dry cell is a chemical battery that uses a paste electrolyte to generate direct current (wet cell is a chemical battery that uses a liquid electrolyte). Dry cell is a disposable battery, which is the most commonly used and lightweight battery in daily life. They can be used in many electrical appliances.

Advantages of dry cell:

• Small size: easy to carry, disposable product, can be connected to a DC regulated power supply with the required working voltage.
•  Wide range of applications: flashlights, recorders, digital cameras, alarm clocks, children's toys, etc.
•  Relatively long life.

Dry cell is a general term for zinc-manganese battery, alkaline battery, and nickel-chromium battery.

Zinc-manganese battery

A primary battery with manganese dioxide as the positive electrode, zinc as the negative electrode, and ammonium chloride as the electrolyte. The nominal voltage is 1.5V, and the most suitable operating temperature is 15~30℃.

Alkaline battery

Alkaline battery refers to a battery using alkaline electrolyte, which is generally called alkaline battery in life, referring to alkaline zinc-manganese battery. In a broad sense, the electrode materials used in alkaline batteries include: zinc-manganese dioxide, zinc-mercury oxide, cadmium-nickel hydroxide, etc. The common disposable alkaline battery on the market is composed of zinc-manganese dioxide, with manganese dioxide as the cathode of the battery, zinc as the anode, and potassium hydroxide aqueous solution as the electrolyte. The nominal voltage is 1.5V

Nickel-chromium battery

Nickel-chromium battery (NiCd battery) is an early popular storage battery. This battery uses nickel hydroxide (NiOH) and metal cadmium (Cd) as chemicals to generate electricity. The nominal voltage is 1.2V, and there are many types, such as cylindrical sealed type (KR), buckle type (KB), square sealed type (KC), etc. It has the characteristics of wide operating temperature range, long cycle and storage life, and can discharge with large current, but there is a "memory" effect, and the electrical performance is often degraded due to regular incorrect use.

Difference between lithium battery and dry cell

Environmental protection: Dry cell contains heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, etc., which are serious air pollution, and they are thrown away quickly after use, so they are disposable batteries; however, lithium battery does not contain harmful metals, so even if it is thrown away after use, it will not pollute the environment.

Economic benefits: Lithium battery has fast charging function and high cycle life, which is unattainable by dry cell. Dry cell is disposable battery, while lithium battery is rechargeable battery, which can be charged several times and has no memory. It does not need to be charged according to the battery capacity, and can be used at any time. Using lithium battery can reduce purchase cost and time.

Intelligent protection: At present, the internal structure of most lithium batteries on the market has a self-protection power supply circuit, built-in BMS, and multiple protections such as short circuit protection, overcharge and discharge protection, overtemperature protection, and overcurrent protection.

Application range: Lithium batteries have the advantages of smooth operating voltage, safety and reliability, high quality and low price, wide application range, rich raw materials and high recycling rate. They are a type of battery with the largest production volume and the widest application range among all types of batteries in the world; Dry batteries: Mainly suitable for high-intensity flashlights, semiconductor material recorders, Sanyo tape recorders, digital cameras, electronic clocks, children's toys and other products.

Advantages of lithium batteries:

1. Relatively high energy and high storage energy density.

2. Long service life, which can reach more than 6 years.

3. High rated voltage (single-cell operating voltage is 3.7V or 3.2V), which is convenient for forming battery packs.

4. High power endurance, lithium iron phosphate lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles can reach 15-30C charging and discharging capacity, which is convenient for high-intensity starting and acceleration.

7. Strong adaptability to high and low temperatures, can be used in -20℃--60℃ environment, and can be used in -45℃ environment after process treatment.

8. Green and environmentally friendly, no matter it is produced, used or scrapped, it does not contain or produce toxic and harmful heavy metal elements and substances such as lead, mercury, and cadmium.

9. Production basically does not consume water, which is very beneficial to my country, which is short of water.

****Note: The article content and numbers are mainly referenced from Wikipedia and Baidu Encyclopedia.