Electrochemistry of thin-plate lead-carbon batteries employing alternative current collectors

The article discusses the electrochemistry of lead-carbon battery cells based on thin-plate electrodes with alternative current collectors. The latter are comprised of lead-electroplated graphite foil and expanded titanium mesh coated with SnO2 replacing the conventional negative and positive grids. The results from charge/discharge tests, cycling voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy measurements show that the negative electrodes store energy via three types of electrochemical processes: electrostatic storage, reversible hydrogen storage and precipitation/dissolution of lead and lead sulfate. When the activated carbon is the predominant component of the negative active material the preferred energy storage mechanism is the reversible hydrogen storage. The use of titanium as alternative current collector allows to increase the active material to current collector ratio to 5: 1, retaining a high power performance and increasing the battery lifetime beyond 3000 equivalent cycles in partial state of charge cycling applications.