Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) battery
Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) battery, is also a wet-cell, rechargeable battery. It uses nickel oxide hydroxide and metallic cadmium as electrodes. \
Hence the name of the Nickel Cadmium battery. It is used where long life, high discharge rate, and economical price are important. However, it also has a relatively low energy density.
A fully charged NiCd cell contains:
A nickel(III) oxide-hydroxide positive electrode plate
A cadmium negative electrode plate
A separator, and
An alkaline electrolyte (potassium hydroxide).
Here is the construction of a NiCd Battery:
Here is the chemical reaction for a NiCd Battery:
It has a gravimetric energy density of 45-80 (Wh/Kg), a cycle life of 1500, a cell voltage of 1.25V. And the typical battery cost of $50 (7.2V) (which is $0.04 cost per cycle).
It is usually used as a substitute for primary cells because of the lower terminal voltage and its cheap price. Its advantages include fast and simple charges as well as a high number of charge/discharge cycles.
However, some of the limitations it has included how environmentally unfriendly it is because NiCd contains toxic material which is very harmful to the environment and requires special care during battery disposal. Another limitation it has is the “memory effect”, which means that battery slowly loses its maximum energy capacity after being only partially charged. This will make a NiCd battery to hold less charge.