Positive Effects of Highly Graphitized Porous Carbon Loaded with PbO on Cycle Performance of Negative Plates of Lead-Acid Batteries

Abstract

Carbon materials are one of the most important additives used in lead-acid batteries (LABs) to solve irreversible sulfation. Being the next generation additive for LABs, they exhibit more excellent performance. The addition of carbon materials to negative active material (NAM) is used to enhance the performance of batteries. In this paper, the composite of lead oxide and carbon (LC) was prepared by the pyrolysis of a mixture of highly graphitized porous carbon (HPC) and PbCO3. Compared with the control cell, the initial specific discharge capacity was increased by 16.5% when LC material was added to NAM. Finally, a possible mechanism for the improvement of the cycle performance of LC cell was proposed. The adoption of LC material can eliminate the difference in density between Pb and C, and thus make them evenly mixed. The uniformly dispersed HPC can promote electrolyte circulation and effectively limit the overgrowth of irreversible PbSO4. At the same time, the presence of -Pb-COO chemical bond can strengthen the stability of lead-carbon electrodes.

Keywords

• lead-acid batteries
• highly graphitized porous carbon
• negative active material
• irreversible sulfation