A new nano lead-doped mesoporous carbon composite as negative electrode additives for ultralong-cyclability lead-carbon batteries

Abstract

We propose and realize a new nano lead-doped mesoporous carbon composite as the negative electrode additives, which realize the abundant nano-lead electrodeposition into carbon pores and the remarkable suppression of irreversible sulfation, to effectively prolong the cycle life of lead-carbon batteries. We show that through NaOH activation and followed air oxidation, porous carbon could obtain more mesopore volume and appropriate acidic groups, which are two critical parameters for effective nano-lead electrodeposition on the internal surface of them. We for the first time demonstrate that these mesopore system could be loaded much more deposits in them, and confine the size of lead deposits to be in nano scale by their local effect, ensuring a much more remarkable suppression of hydrogen evolution and better reversibility of Pb/PbSO4. In addition, we show that these nano-lead electrodeposits could stably contribute remarkable pseudocapacitance. All these merits contribute to the ultralong cyclability achieved by lead-carbon batteries, which will translate into promising inexpensive systems that could revolutionize the large-scale energy storage fields.