What is the essential difference between lithium batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries? Let’s take a look today. Lithium batteries are more suitable for use on mobile phones, but if we use them on digital cameras, the amount of current to be continuously generated at that moment needs to be very large, and the power consumption is much larger than that of mobile phones, so we use nickel The hydrogen battery is better. Next, let's continue to take a look.


Advantages and disadvantages of lithium batteries

Advantages: no memory effect, lighter total weight.

Disadvantages: The cost is relatively high, the working current is small, and it is not resistant to over-saturation (compared with Ni-MH)


　　 Lithium batteries have primary lithium batteries (non-rechargeable) and secondary lithium batteries (rechargeable), and secondary lithium batteries are divided into Li-ion lithium-ion batteries and Li-Polymer lithium polymer batteries.


　　 Generally, digital cameras use secondary lithium batteries (rechargeable). Compared with Ni-MH batteries, the total weight is relatively light, and the volume power density ratio is higher than 48%. Because of this, the production and sales of lithium-ion secondary batteries are gradually surpassing nickel-hydrogen batteries. This type of battery itself has a small discharge and no memory effect. The number of charge and discharge times can reach more than 600. Especially the Li-Polymer battery developed in recent years. In addition to its smaller size, it is not affected by the battery under normal conditions. The cylindrical or square appearance is limited, and the total weight is also lighter.


　　 Lithium batteries are not resistant to overcharging, and there is a danger of explosion if they are accidentally used. Therefore, a built-in control IC is required to avoid overcharging, but the cost is relatively higher. Since the specifications of lithium batteries are not uniform, there will be cases where the batteries cannot be purchased after the production is discontinued. However, many improvements have been made.


Advantages and disadvantages of nickel-metal hydride batteries

Advantages: low price, strong versatility, large working current, stable environmental protection.

Disadvantages: The total weight is large, and the battery life is short.


　　 The design of nickel-metal hydride batteries originated from nickel-cadmium batteries, but there has been great progress in improving the memory effect of nickel-cadmium batteries. The main change is to replace the cadmium used in the negative electrode with a hydrogen storage alloy, so the nickel-hydrogen battery can be said to be a typical representative of material innovation. The pollution caused by nickel-metal hydride batteries is much smaller than that of nickel-cadmium batteries containing cadmium. Therefore, nickel-cadmium batteries have been gradually replaced by nickel-metal hydride batteries.


Except for a few lithium batteries that can be used once (NIKONEN-EL1 and 2CR5), most of the lithium batteries do not have a battery alternative. This is very troublesome for long-term overseas trips or large numbers of users. Ni-MH batteries have no such problem. In digital cameras that use nickel-metal hydride batteries, alkaline batteries can usually be used instead.