National Battery Day Date in the current year: February 18, 2024

National Battery Day is celebrated on the birthday of Alessandro Volta, a pioneer in electricity and power who is credited with inventing the electric battery. He got interested in Luigi Galvani’s experiments with “animal electricity” but doubted some of Galvani’s conclusions, which led to Volta conducting his own experiments and inventing the so-called voltaic pile, which is considered the first electric battery.

The voltaic pile consisted of several pairs of alternating copper and zinc disc separated by cardboard or cloth soaked in electrolyte. When Volta connected the top and bottom contacts by a wire, an electric current flowed through the wire and the electrodes. The voltaic pile was the first source of electric energy produced by chemical reaction, in other words, the first electric battery.

A device capable of generating electrical energy is called an electrochemical cell. The term “electric battery” was historically used to refer to two or more cells connected together, but today, power sources consisting of a single electrochemical cell are also referred to as batteries.

There are two main types of batteries: primary and secondary. The main difference between the two is that primary batteries are based on irreversible chemical reactions and therefore cannot be recharged, whereas secondary batteries are rechargeable.

Batteries are also classified by application (for example, automobile batteries, watch batteries, photoflash batteries, CMOS batteries, etc.) and by design (galvanic cells, fuel cells, flow cells, etc.). They come in many shapes and sizes depending on their intended use. Technical standards for battery types and sizes are set by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and other standards organizations.

Batteries play a huge role in the modern world by being an immediate source of electric power for various devices (from hearing aids and watches to smartphones and laptops), vehicles and even computer data centers. So it is not surprising that there is a National Battery Day that celebrates batteries and the person who invented them over two centuries ago.

National Battery Day was created to recognize the importance of batteries, but also to raise battery recycling awareness. Why is it so important that both single-use and rechargeable batteries be recycled once they reach their end-of-life? Firstly, batteries contain chemicals that can be hazardous to the environment and human health if released. Secondly, recycling allows to recover the materials within batteries so that they can be reused.

The best way to celebrate National Battery Day is to search for a drop-off location for old batteries near you, as well as to encourage your friends and family to take dead batteries for recycling through proper channels instead of throwing them away.