Most of us have seen the videos. Batteries exploding with a bright flash of light and/or violent jets of flames. Is it due to pressure inside the battery or simply the materials/chemicals they’re made of?
In: Chemistry
It’s a chemical reaction. There are tons of different kinds of batteries, but in a nutshell they all work by combining chemicals that want to react with each other and produce electricity as a result. Usually the chemical reaction is restricted by the device they are installed in, a laptop has safeguards that ‘limit’ the battery from releasing a ton of electricity and frying the computer. When batteries get damaged, or a produced improperly, the restrictions can be removed and the battery can discharge rapidly, releasing a lot of heat and energy all at once.
Latest Answers