Commonly used in hearing-aids. Out of the box, they have a tab that you peel off to expose little breather holes that allow air into the body of cell to activate it. The cells are normally used to exhaustion and then discarded, but is it possible to remove a partially used cell from a hearing-aid and keep it for later use, possibly by re-sealing the access holes?
Or does the cell just continue to deteriorate once the breather holes have been opened?
Once it is opened it will deteriorate but if you reseal it then it will keep a bit longer when starved of oxygen. Likewise they take a couple of minutes to reach nominal working condition after opening one.
Yes, but it deteriorates slightly more slowly with the hole closed. Basically once you break the seal the cell is on its way.
Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought, but nice to have it confirmed.
MY experience is that they continue to get worse. I don't have the science to explain it, but I've never managed to re cover the holes and keep it in a drawer for, say three months and found it still worked. Brian
I used to use these in microphones, but now I tend to pay a bit more and get conventional cells for this very reason. Brian
They are designed for single, low power continuous use, like hearing aids.
OT slightly These cells are a great way to demonstrate the physics/chemistry involved. If you have access to a sensitive balance/scales you can watch their mass increase as the Zn goes to ZnO on discharging the cell; this can be compared favourably with the mass increase calculated from theory ( A level standard)
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