Question
Question: Which is better, NiMH or NiCd Battery?...
Which is better, NiMH or NiCd Battery?
Solution
A device consisting of one or more electrical cells is called batteries. These batteries will usually convert chemical energy into electrical energy. There are different types of batteries and let us see which battery is better: NiMH or NiCd.
Complete step by step solution:
Batteries are fundamentally divided into two types. One is primary batteries and the other is secondary batteries.
The basic difference between primary and secondary batteries is primary batteries or non-rechargeable and secondary batteries are rechargeable. The given two batteries Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) both belong to the second type that is secondary batteries. Let us compare these batteries and see which one is better.
Both batteries are older types of batteries. These two batteries were once the first option for being used in portable computers. However, they both have their pros and cons which we can see in detail in the following paragraphs.
The standard Nickel-Cadmium batteries were first discovered by a Swedish scientist. The benefits of NiCd batteries are they are relatively inexpensive when compared to their counterpart NiMH batteries. They charge very quickly and they can even function in low temperatures. The drawbacks are they contain toxic metals which are dangerous to the environment. On the downside, these NiCd batteries have a charging problem. This problem is commonly called the "memory effect". That is, if these batteries don't get completely charged after each and every use, the next time they get charged they will potentially only charge up to the last highest charge. This will eventually shorten the lifespan of the NiCd battery.
The phenomenon of Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries is of much more modern phenomenon. The benefits of the NiMH batteries are they can have quite a high resistivity against both over-charging and over-discharging. These are lightweight in construction. Unlike NiCd batteries, they do not have any hazardous chemicals like cadmium, mercury, or lead. The drawbacks include they are more expensive and cut power suddenly rather than a slow trickle down. They also don’t have a memory effect like NiCd batteries.
When we compare both the batteries we can see that NiMH batteries are more environmentally-friendly and offer high capacity and also do not have a memory effect. Therefore we can say that NiMH batteries are better than NiCd batteries.
NiMH batteries are better than NiCd batteries.
Note:
NiCd batteries still offer some peculiar advantages over NiMH batteries. The advantages include extreme temperature performance. Also, the NiMH generates considerably more heat during charge, and also it requires a more complex algorithm for full-charge detection than its counterpart NiCd batteries if the temperature sensing is not available.