Electrochemical evaluation of additives for lead-acid batteries under high-discharge conditions

Organic expanders play an important role in the lead-acid battery. This stu dy presents the design of an electrochemical method which evaluates the inf luence of some commercial expanders on the performance of the negative plat e. Examination is made of different commercial expander formulations which are prepared in the laboratory under carefully controlled conditions. In or der to compare their influence on the behaviour of the negative plate, pote ntial step and cyclic voltammetric techniques using high-potential polariza tion are performed. The results allow the selection of those expander addit ives which exert the best electrochemical effect on high-rate discharge rea ctions at negative plates. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserv ed.