How It Works
As an alkaline battery is discharged, chemicals inside the battery react to create an electric current. However, once the chemicals have reached chemical equilibrium, the reaction stops, and the battery is depleted. By driving a current through the battery in the reverse direction, the equilibrium can be shifted backwards towards the original reactants. Different batteries rely on different chemical reactions. Some reactions are readily reversible, some are not. The reactions used in most alkaline batteries fall into the latter category. In particular, the metallic zinc generated by driving a reverse current through the cell will generally not return to its original location in the cell, and may form crystals that damage the separator layer between battery anode and electrolyte.
Non-rechargeable alkaline batteries that have been recharged will have reduced voltage and current capacity.
Read more about this topic: Recharging Alkaline Batteries
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