Nanocrosses of lead sulphate as the negative active material of lead acid batteries

Abstract

Lead sulphate transforms into PbO2 and Pb in the positive and negative electrodes, respectively, when a lead acid battery is charged, thus, it is an active material. It is also generally acknowledged that sulphation results in the failure of lead acid batteries; therefore, it is very interesting to find out how to make lead sulphate more electrochemically active. Here, we demonstrate that nanocrystalline lead sulphate can be used as excellent negative active material in lead acid batteries. The lead sulphate nanocrystals, which are prepared by a facile chemical precipitation of aqueous lead acetate and sodium sulphate in a few minutes, look like crosses with diameter of each arm being 100 nm to 3 μm. The electrode is effectively formed in much shorter time than traditional technique, yet it discharges a capacity of 103 mA h g−1 at the current density of 120 mA g−1, which is 24% higher than that discharged by the electrode made from leady oxide under the same condition. During 100% DOD cycles, more than 80% of that capacity remains in 550 cycles. These results show that lead sulphate can be a nice negative active material in lead acid batteries.