Lead‐Acid – Still the Battery Technology with the Largest Sales

Abstract

While the market share of li‐ion and lead‐acid batteries was nearly the same in terms of calendar year 2017 revenue, the lead‐acid battery is still the most prevalent battery technology, with 75% market share in terms of the entire rechargeable battery market. Since the lead‐acid battery has been used and improved for over 150 years, one major benefit of today's lead‐acid batteries is that they have been cost‐effectively adapted to every application, whereas, with li‐ion batteries, the practice has been to deploy mass‐produced standard cell types in the different applications due to cost and safety concerns. Further advantages of lead‐acid batteries are their tolerance of customer abuse and mistreatment as well as the well‐established worldwide recycling with over 98% of the lead battery materials being reused. From the 150‐year history to additional new development trends such as bipolar and thin plate pure lead, the main characteristics of lead‐acid batteries, including their thermodynamic, current/voltage behavior as well as the main aging mechanisms, are described in this article.

The Evolution Tracking of Tribasic Lead Sulfates Features in Lead-Acid Battery Positive Electrode using Design of Experiments

“…34 In the case of high-rate discharge, the diffusion of − HSO 4 ions into the plate pores are limited, while the Pb 2+ generation is faster, and thus the nucleation rate of PbSO 4 is higher than its growth rate. 35 Consequently, there is a risk of passivation of the plate and premature loss of capacity because of the precipitation occurs mainly on the interface electrode/electrolyte. According to the battery's operating mode (high or low rate of discharge), the SSA of the electrode material affects the amount of capacity that may be taken during the discharge.…”