Electrochemical Investigation of Carbon as Additive to the Negative Electrode of Lead-Acid Battery

Department of Mining, Metallurgical, and Materials Engineering, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

^a Corresponding author: mat_fernandez04@yahoo.com
^b francis_mulimbayan@yahoo.com
^c lito.mena@nxp.com

Abstract

The increasing demand of cycle life performance of Pb-acid batteries requires the improvement of the negative Pb electrode’s charge capacity. Electrochemical investigations were performed on Pb electrode and Pb+Carbon (Carbon black and Graphite) electrodes to evaluate the ability of the additives to enhance the electrochemical faradaic reactions that occur during the cycle of Pb-acid battery negative electrode. The electrodes were characterized through Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Potentiodynamic Polarization (PP), and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). CV revealed that the addition of carbon on the Pb electrode increased anodic and cathodicreactions by tenfold. The kinetics of PbSO4 passivation measured through PPrevealed that the addition of Carbon on the Pb electrode accelerated the oxide formation by tenfold magnitude. The Nyquist plot measured through EIS suggest that the electrochemical mechanism and reaction kinetics is under charge-transfer. From the equivalent circuit and physical model, Pb+CB1 electrode has the lowest EIS parameters while Pb+G has the highest which is attributed to faster faradaic reaction.The Nyquist plot of the passivated Pb+CB1 electrode showed double semicircular shape. The first layer represents to the bulk passive PbSO4 layer and the second layer represents the Carbon+PbSO4 layer. The enhancements upon addition of carbon on the Pb electrode were attributed to the additive’s electrical conductivity and total surface area. The electrochemical active sites for the PbSO4 to nucleate and spread increases upon addition of electrical conductive and high surface area carbon additives.