Direct Re-Usability of Lead-Plated Tin Bronze as Negative Plate for Lightweight Lead-Acid Battery

Abstract

Lead-plated tin-bronze mesh was adopted as the negative grid to assembly 2V-DZM-20Ah lead-acid battery. Compared with the conventional negative plate, the weight of each tin-bronze plate was reduced by about 17 g, the weight of the single cell was reduced by 13.67%, and the mass specific capacity of the single cell was increased by about 7 Wh · kg−1. The sulfation of the negative side was suppressed due to the high electronic conductivity of bronze-based negative plate. The failure expansion of the positive side was also restricted due to the strong negative structure. The dissembled negative grid of lead-plated tin bronze after 450 cycles of 100% discharge of degree was still intact and dense. After the dissembled negative grid was reassembled into a 2-V single cell, the battery exhibited similar performance to that with a new one. Generally speaking, the direct re-usability of tin-bronze-based grid sharply simplifies the grid recovery and opens a greatly attracting direction for developing lightweight, high-energy technique of lead-acid batteries.