How Do Titanium Batteries Work?

Batteries 101

Batteries are an electrochemical machine. They use the chemical reactions between two different materials to generate electric current. Fundamental battery designs use a model of two electrodes: an anode (the negative terminal) and a cathode (the positive terminal). These electrodes are not allowed to have direct contact, since the result would be a short circuit. Instead, they are indirectly connected using an electrolyte. Through the electrolyte medium, the anode and cathode react so that positively charged electrons migrate to the cathode and negatively charged electrons travel to the anode. Left alone, this operates as a closed circuit. When a device is connected to the battery, it forms a larger circuit, with power flowing out of the cathode and then back into the anode, minus much of the charge.

Titanium Electrochemisty

Titanium batteries are a higher quality variant on the nickel hydride battery. Nickel oxyhydroxide is used for the cathode, and the electrolyte is potassium hydoxide. The difference is in the anode, which is made of a compound of titanium and ether zirconium or nickel that has been altered with one or more of the following substances: cobalt, chromium, manganese and/or iron. This creates a much higher capacity in the negative anode.

Recharging

Titanium batteries are recharged more readily and with a greater safety margin than nickel hydride batteries. This is the main advantage of the greater capacity of the anode. When a battery is recharged, current is forced into the anode, and it causes the partial reversal of the electrochemical reaction inside the battery.

Resources

• Battery University
• The Straight Dope: Titanium Batteries