Everyday Battle Within Batteries and more art by [2] Bilen Emek Abali

Most of the electronic devices use a battery, which has tons of so-called battery cells in a micrometer length scale. Within this tiny cell, porous electrodes filled with electrolyte challenge chemists, kinetics of ions and their electromagnetic interaction amaze physicists, and simulation of this multi-physics problem drives engineers. This picture is a snapshot of a detailed simulation at micrometer length scale and millisecond time scale, showing in purple-white-orange colors the velocity magnitude, after you fully charge your smartphone, unplug, and start using it. Ions are moving tirelessly between electrodes by battling for the best path along electrode-electrolyte interface, all day long. Yet the race starts again the next day.