Choosing the Right Battery: Key Features & Characteristics Explained

Among all the batteries, the most commonly used ones are lithium batteries. In the electric  vehicle industry alone, there are at least three types of lithium batteries in use. In the face of such a variety of batteries, how can you be sure of which one is what you want? To get to the bottom of that problem, let’s first dive in the characteristics of these batteries.

The performance parameters of the battery mainly include electromotive force, capacity, specific energy and resistance. Let’s take a look at the performance characteristics of each type of battery.

Zinc-manganese battery

Advantages

• High voltage: the open circuit voltage of the new battery can reach 1.5V
• Cheap

Disadvantages

• Smallest capacity
• Large internal resistance
• Poor stability
• The battery waste is a pollution to the environment.

Alkaline battery

Advantages

• High voltage (open circuit voltage of new battery can reach 1.5~1.6V)
• Large capacity, good stability, long battery life
• Excellent discharge performance of small current
• Especially suitable for environments that require small current discharge for a long time (such as quartz clock, radio).

Disadvantages

• Poor low temperature performance
• Poor large current discharge effect(can be applied to a flash lamp without current protection)
• The battery waste is a pollution to the environment.

Lithium battery

Advantages

• High voltage (single operating voltage is 3.7V or 3.2V)
• Large capacity
• Good stability
• Long battery life
• Good performance for both high current and small current discharge
• When used, the voltage remains stable for a long time and slows down slowly.

Disadvantages

• The battery heavily pollutes the environment.

Nickel-cadmium battery

Advantages

• Cheaper than nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Disadvantages

• The voltage is lower than alkaline battery and zinc-manganese battery (normal voltage is 1.2V, voltage can reach 1.3V when fully charged)
• Smaller capacity than nickel-hydrogen battery, small internal resistance
• Poor stability
• Obvious memory effect
• Poor charging or incomplete discharge will affect the battery capacity
• Poor low temperature performance and current discharge effect
• Waste batteries have serious pollution to the environment.

Rechargeable times

• If charged with care, the batteries can be reused for 200-500 times.

 

Nickel-metal hydride battery

Advantages

• Large capacity
• Small internal resistance
• Good stability
• Large charging current
• Short charging time
• Strong charging resistance
• No obvious memory effect
• Good low temperature performance
• High current discharge effect (very suitable for flash, digital camera, mobile phone and laptop).

Disadvantages

• The voltage is lower than alkaline battery and zinc-manganese battery (normal voltage is 1.2V, voltage can reach 1.3V when fully charged).
• The waste battery has little pollution to the environment.

Rechargeable times

• If charged with care, the batteries can be reused for more than 500 times. A good nickel-metal hydride battery, such as VARTA, can be charged 1000 times or even 1200 times.

Lithium-ion battery

Advantages

• High voltage (different battery voltages of different specifications)
• Large capacity, small internal resistance, good stability
• High current discharge performance
• When used, the voltage remains stable for a long time, but once the power is exhausted, the voltage will be Sub-lower to 0, no memory effect at all.
• Poor charging or incomplete discharge will not affect the battery capacity.

Disadvantages

• Low temperature performance
• Bad small current discharge
• Waste batteries have serious pollution to the environment.

Rechargeable times

• If charged with care, the batteries can be reused for 400-500 times.

If you are interested in learning more about batteries, please feel free to contact us or leave a comment. We’d be very happy to hear from you.