Batteries are so ordinary we barely notice them, yet the ability to store electricity in a small, portable package underpins phones, laptops, electric cars and increasingly the power grid itself. This episode opens up the humble battery: how a controlled chemical reaction pushes electrons through your devices, why lithium-ion changed the world, and why energy storage is one of the great bottlenecks of the century.

You'll come away understanding what actually happens inside a battery, the difference between single-use and rechargeable cells, why lithium-ion won, and the real challenges facing the batteries we'll need next.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: Royal Society of Chemistry – “How batteries wor ...