A Low-Cost, High Energy-Density Lead/Acid Battery

Lightweight plastic grids for lead/acid battery plates have been prepared from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer. The grids have been coated with a conductive and corrosion-resistant tin oxide layer by a novel rapid thermally activated chemical reaction process. X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy show the coated tin oxide film to be SnO2-like. The grids are about 75% lighter than conventional lead/acid battery grids. A 6 V/1 Ah lead/acid battery has been assembled and characterized employing positive and negative plates made from these grids. The energy density of such a lead/acid battery is believed to be more than 50 Wh/kg

A low-cost lead-acid battery with high specific-energy

Lightweight grids for lead-acid battery grids have been prepared from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) copolymer followed by coating with lead. Subsequently, the grids have been electrochemically coated with a conductive and corrosion-resistant layer of polyaniline. These grids are about 75% lighter than those employed in conventional lead-acid batteries. Commercial-grade 6V/3×5Ah (C20-rate) lead-acid batteries have been assembled and characterized employing positive and negative plates constituting these grids. The specific energy of such a lead-acid battery is about 50 Wh/kg. The batteries can withstand fast charge–discharge duty cycles

Lead-acid battery with high specific energy

An electrochemical method of manufacturing a corrosion resistant grid structure used in a lead-acid battery, said method comprising coating of substrate material such as herein described, with a metal layer of copper or nickel and a subsequent layer of lead/lead alloy followed by the electrodeposition of an organic material such as polyaniline and similar other organic material, over the above said lead/lead alloy layer by using an electrolyte such as oxalic acid to obtain a corrosion resistant grid structure used in a lead-acid battery

Lead-acid batteries for partial-state-of-charge applications

2 V/40 Ah valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) cells have been constructed with negative plates employing carbon black aswell as an admixture of carbon black + fumed silica as additives in negative active material for partial-state-of-charge (PSoC) applications. Electrical performance of such cells is compared with conventional 2 V/40 Ah VRLA cells for PSoC operation. Active material utilization has been found to be higher for carbon-black + fumed-silica mixed negative plates while formation is faster for cells with carbon-black mixed negative plates. Both faradaic efficiency and percentage capacity delivered have been found to be higher for cells with carbon-black + fumed-silica mixed negative plates. However, a high self-discharge rate is observed for cells with carbon-black + fumed-silica mixed negative plates

Lead-acid cells with polyaniline-coated negative plates

Positive- and negative-limited lead-acid cells with conventional and polyaniline (PANI)-coated negative plates were assembled and tested at varying discharge rates. The cells with PANI-coated negative plates exhibit lower impedance in relation to conventional cells and sustain higher discharge-rates with lesser loss in capacity during prolonged charge–discharge cycling as compared to conventional cells. It is suggested that PANI-coated negative plates are beneficial in designing lead-acid batteries operating at partial-state-of-charge

Improved lead–acid cells employing tin oxide coated Dynel fibres with positive active-material

A rapid-thermally-activated chemical reaction process has been employed to coat tin oxide onto Dynel fibres. Positive-limited 2 V/1.5 Ah lead-acid cells employing tin-oxide coated Dynel fibres as additive to positive active mass have been assembled and characterized under various operational conditions. In this manner, it has been possible to improve the positive active material utilization and particularly at higher discharge rates

Comparative study of lead-acid batteries for photovoltaic standalone lighting systems

The lead-acid battery is often the weakest link in photovoltaic (PV) installations. Accordingly, various versions of lead-acid batteries, namely flooded, gelled, absorbent glass-mat and hybrid, have been assembled and performance tested for a PV stand-alone lighting system. The study suggests the hybrid VRLA batteries, which exhibit both the high power density of absorbent glass-mat design and the improved thermal properties of the gel design, to be appropriate for such an application. Among the VRLA-type batteries studied here water loss for the hybrid VRLA batteries is minimal and charge-acceptance during the service at high temperatures is better in relation to their AGM counterparts

High Specific-Energy Lead-Acid Batteries Through Organic Metals

A novel room-temperature route to corrosion protect lead-coated plastic grids with an organic metal, namely, polyaniline, for producing commercial-grade high specific-energy 12 V/45 Ah lead-acid batteries is reported. The specific energy of these leadacid batteries is found to be ca. 45 Wh/kg as against about 30 Wh/kg for conventional lead-acid batteries. It is believed that the study reported here will open up a new realm of possibilities for lead-acid battery development, and will contribute directly towards lowering the cost of both battery materials and manufacturing