Ionic liquid as an electrolyte additive for high performance lead-acid batteries

The performance of lead-acid battery is improved in this work by inhibiting the corrosion of negative battery electrode (lead) and hydrogen gas evolution using ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate). The results display that the addition of ionic liquid to battery electrolyte (5.0 M H2SO4 solution) suppresses the hydrogen gas evolution to very low rate 0.049 ml min−1 cm−2 at 80 ppm. Electrochemical studies show that the adsorption of ionic liquid molecules on the lead electrode surface leads to the increase in the charge transfer resistance and the decrease in the double layer capacitance. I also notice a noteworthy improvement of battery capacity from 45 mAh g−1 to 83 mAh g−1 in the presence of ionic liquid compound. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirm the adsorption of ionic liquid molecules on the battery electrode surface.