Car batteries store electrical energy for vehicle electrical purposes. But all the battery has a limit, when all the stored energy has been used, the battery needs to be recharged to fill the battery energy.
The question is, how is the charging process on a car battery?
Check out the following article.
Car Battery Charging Process
Batteries work using a series of chemical reactions. The chemical reaction will produce a potential difference, so that electricity flows from the battery.
To charge, the battery reverses the discharge reaction. So the electricity supplied to the battery will reverse the reaction so that it is full charge.
Inside the battery, we will find several components. The three most core components are sulfuric acid solution as the reacting material, then there are two plates made of Pb and PbO2. The first plate is called the cathode or positive plate which is connected to the positive terminal of the battery, the cathode is made of PbO2.
While the other plate is the anode which is connected to the negative terminal of the battery. This plate is made of Pb.
Charging process is done when the battery is empty. An empty battery means that the sulfuric acid solution in the battery has turned into pure water due to the effect of the discharging reaction.
The discharging reaction will move ions in the battery, so the PbO2 plate becomes a Pb plate, the Pb plate becomes PbSO4, and sulfuric acid becomes pure water. In this condition, the discharging reaction cannot on going because the sulfuric acid is very weak.
To make the sulfuric acid solution back, we need to reverse the reaction. We can do this by circulating a power source at both battery terminals.
The electric current at the cathode breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen will be reabsorbed by the cathode so that it returns to PbO2.
Pb + H2O ---- PbO2 + H
At the same time, when the anode gets electricity, it will trigger sulfate to escape from the anode plate.
The released sulfate then combines with the hydrogen and returns to form a solution of sulfuric acid. Meanwhile, the anode returns to the Pb plate.
PbSO4 + H ---- Pb + H2SO4
The final result of this charging reaction will return the sulfuric acid solution in first condition. When the sulfuric acid concentration is strong, the discharging reaction can be carried out again. Or in other words, the battery can be used again.
It is so simple to learn how the car battery charge, this process applies on lead acid battery. Regular or VRLA battery is the same process.
That’s my explanation about charging process on car battery.