Significance of carbon additive in negative lead-acid battery electrodes

Understanding the function and performance of carbon-enhanced lead-acid batteries : milestone report for the DOE Energy Storage Systems Program (FY11 Quarter 4: July through September 2011).

“…They concluded that any addition, not just carbon, which modified the pore structure in such a manner would result in an improvement in performance. This theory is supported by Calebeck and Micka, et al 6,7,8 where both titania (TiO 2 ) and alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) were found to provide improvements similar to those obtained by carbon, though their argument was that, in addition to obstructing large pores in the NAM, the additions hindered growth of PbSO 4 crystals, preventing the formation of the large crystallites associated with sulfation. Valenciano, et al 9 also observed a beneficial effect of an inert addition, in their case glass fibers, though the resulting improvement appeared to depend on the manner in which the battery itself was assembled.…”

Understanding the function and performance of carbon-enhanced lead-acid batteries : milestone report for the DOE Energy Storage Systems program (FY11 Quarter 1: October through December 2010).

“…They concluded that any addition, not just carbon, that modified the pore structure in such a manner would result in an improvement in performance. This theory is supported by Calebeck and Micka, et al 6,7,8 where both titania (TiO 2 ) and alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) were found to provide improvements similar to those obtained by carbon, though their argument was that, in addition to obstructing large pores in the NAM, the additions hindered growth of PbSO 4 crystals, preventing the formation of the large crystallites associated with sulfation. Valenciano, et al 9 also observed a beneficial effect of an inert addition, in their case glass fibers, though the resulting improvement appeared to depend on the manner in which the battery itself was assembled.…”

Influence of pitch-based carbon foam current collectors on the electrochemical properties of lead acid battery negative electrodes

“…It was commonly accepted that the primary function of the carbon material was to clear the negative electrodes during formation [18]. It was also described that the carbon additive could influence the porosity of the negative electrodes [19].…”