= Primary battery
A <primary battery> is designed to deliver stored chemical <energy> through discharge rather than to recover that <energy> repeatedly by electrical charging. The distinction concerns the practical cell design and reaction reversibility, not whether a balanced chemical equation can be written in both directions.
During discharge, coupled <oxidation> and <reduction> at the <electrodes> supply an external <electric current>. Reaction products, morphology changes and parasitic processes determine how much active material remains accessible. A <rechargeable battery> instead manages those changes sufficiently well to recover useful capacity over repeated cycles; nominal chemical reversibility alone does not establish that capability.
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