…sigh….. 🙁 Was wondering why my keyboard mouse was not performing often annoying me at best. Every morning before I grab my cup of hot liquid I start up my PC with logging ritual, again no keyboard mouse contact, tried changing the USB connection would help sometimes (why I don’t know) fed up I unlocked the cap at the bottom.

Wohaa…in for a little surprise! While it only has been a couple months since I replaced the batteries, the whole inner cap and right side where covered in a white powdery dust.

The white powder seen on a leaked battery is Potassium Hydroxide that is used as electrolyte in alkaline battery or zinc/zinc oxide.

Leaking batteries

The composition of an Alkaline Battery is Manganese Dioxide, Zinc, Potassium Hydroxide – KOH – (35%), Graphite. When batteries are left unused for a long time or are damaged there is the possibility of a leakage visible as a white powder in correspondence of the battery’s electrode that is caused by the alkaline battery corrosion. Read the full article “How to clean Alkaline Battery corrosion“.

For the chemists among us, they know exactly what this chemical reaction means, for the ignorant like me, be cautious. Leaking batteries can be harmful to touch with bare hands, especially with large batteries wear gloves and dispose of immediately in designated battery waste containers but NOT in your regular waste disposal or garbage cans. Clean your hands afterwards the stuff can be harmful to our skin.

Battery corrosion in the house

In our urban world, every household uses some sort of battery operated appliances from household, computer peripherals, toys, electronics etc, we often think that all goes well but corrosion appears more often than we count them and we forget to check on a regular basis on their lifetime span. When we do it usually means it either has stopped working or has even corrupted the appliance or tool rendering it complete inoperable or damaged in worse case scenario.

Looking at alkaline battery corrosion mess; the keyboard mouse is daily in use, far from being a discarded item so it must have been a faulty battery at the very beginning. Really thought for a moment I had to buy new hardware, luckily the inner compartment of the mouse could easily be brushed off. For stubborn stains/deposit apparently, you can use water and vinegar and let it dry completely before using again. Apart from the water I even read an on-line response that even a can of Coke and an old toothbrush would do the trick with engine batteries. Gives another meaning to Coco Cola 2011 advertising slogan “Live begins here” 🙂