LEAD ALLOYS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The most critical non-active component in the lead/acid battery is the grid or substrate. A review of the work on grids and grid alloys in t he period 1960-1993 has been carried out by the Advanced Lead-Acid Bat tery Consortium and, in this paper, the results are analyzed in relati on to the effort expended on different alloy systems. Lead-antimony al loys and the effects on them of additions of arsenic, tin, and grain-r efining elements (selenium, sulfur, copper), together with lead-calciu m alloys and the effect on them of tin additions, have received the gr eatest attention in the past. Proposals are made for future studies. P ossible evolutionary developments include the addition of silver and h igher amounts of tin to lead-calcium alloys, more detailed investigati ons of lead-strontium and lead-lithium alloys containing tin and/or si lver, and further work on very-low-antimony alloys. More speculative p rojects are very rapidly cooled alloys, the use of aluminium as grids or spines, plastic/lead-coated copper negative grids, corrosion-resist ant coatings of lead compounds on the grids and, finally, a substrate for a bipolar plate that is based on conductive inorganic compounds.