eli5: Why do batteries goes bad?

Question

I am think cellphone battery and watches.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

So. Normal batteries (not rechargeable) go bad because they produce electricity through a chemical reaction, when you use up all the ingredients for the chemical reaction, no more electricity can be produced.

Rechargeable batteries go bad (hold less charge) because of how they are rechargeable. When you recharge a battery, you use electricity to reset the chemical reaction in the battery.

But, when you do this, you can not reset it perfectly. Before the ingredients for the chemical reaction were organized nice and neatly, when they get reset, they are more disorganized and not stacked as neatly in the battery.

This means that the battery doesn’t work as well.

And every time you reset the battery, it get less and less neat, making it less and less efficient, making the battery worse and worse.