[Explained] Battery can store AC or DC and Why?

In the older days, there was only one device using which we can store electrical energy for a long time that is Battery. Nowadays, Supercapacitors and many other devices also come which can store electrical energy for a long time but less than a battery. The most economical and conventional device for storing electrical energy is a Battery. There are some questions that arise are batteries AC or DC, whether a Battery can store AC or DC, and Why Battery cannot store AC.

Are Batteries AC or DC?

I have noticed, lots of people search on Google "Are batteries ac or dc". Always remember that batteries are DC devices, not AC. We used the Inverter in our home for the power backup, and the inverter gives AC supply. The inverter uses the battery for storing electrical energy. So sometimes people are confused and they said batteries are AC because the inverter gives AC output.

The inverter converts AC to DC for the charging of batteries and again converts DC to AC to give AC power supply to our home appliances. So Always remember that batteries are DC devices.

A battery can store AC or DC?

As I told you before the battery is a DC device so it can store DC. The battery cannot store AC. The internal chemistry of batteries such as lead-acid, lithium-ion, or nickel-cadmium is optimized to generate and store a steady flow of electrons in one direction. And we know the DC supply has steady electrons flow in one direction.

Why battery cannot store AC?

Actually, any device does not know what is AC and what is DC they only know electrical energy. Some devices can convert electrical energy to another energy and some devices can convert another to electrical energy. We can say AC and DC are different forms of electrical energy.

First, know how a battery stores electrical energy. A Battery stores electrical energy in the form of chemical energy. When we connect the battery to the power supply for charging it converts electrical energy into chemical energy and stored it. But when we connect the battery with a load, it converts the stored chemical energy into electrical energy and delivers it to the load.

During the discharge time, a chemical reaction happens inside the battery, the anode of the battery starts to release electrons, and these electrons flow through the load and ultimately go to the cathode of the battery which absorbs the electrons.

During Charging time, the applied voltage forced the electrons to release from the cathode and go to the anode. So, in this case, the cathode releases electrons, and the anode absorbs electrons.

Now we connect a battery with an AC power supply to store the AC supply. AC changes its polarity according to its frequency. If it has 50Hz frequency then the polarity is changed 50 times per second. So during the positive half cycle, a positive voltage will be applied to the battery and the battery will be charged but in the negative half cycle, a reverse voltage will be applied to the battery which forces the battery to discharge quickly. So the total average voltage applied to the battery will be zero and it will not be charged.

The battery can be charged by the AC supply if we interchange the terminals of the battery by changing of the polarity of the AC supply which is not highly possible.

So battery has the property that electrons can flow from one plate to another plate in one direction only at the same time which is why the battery cannot store AC.

Also, remember that Batteries are not designed to handle AC voltage directly. So, applying AC voltage to a battery without proper circuitry and protection mechanisms can lead to overheating, excessive current flow, and potential damage to the battery. In some cases, applying AC voltage to a battery could result in safety risks, such as leakage, venting, or even a risk of explosion or fire.

Read Also:

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• [Main] Difference between Cell and Battery Explained
• Why mobile phone or cell phone battery has more than two terminal?
• Float, Trickle, Boost Charging Difference and Examples

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