Regular Article

The influences of silver and zinc addition on the electrochemical performances of the Pb–Ca–Sn Grids for lead acid batteries

¹ State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, PR China
² Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
³ Faculty of Science, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, PR China

^* emails: lwg3@163.com; jhpeng_ok@yeah.net

Received: 28 February 2017
Accepted: 2 January 2018

Abstract

The silver and zinc addition on the electrochemical performances of the Pb–Ca–Sn Grids were investigated. The corrosion film structure, phase composition and electrochemical performances of Pb − 0.08 wt.% Ca − 1.2 wt.% Sn alloy, Pb − 0.08 wt.% Ca − 1.2 wt.% Sn − 0.03 wt.% Ag alloy and Pb − 0.08wt.% Ca − 1.2 wt.% Sn − 0.06 wt.% Zn alloy in a 1.28 g/mL of H₂SO₄ solution were studied by SEM observation, metallographic study, XRD, CV test and Constant DC discharge. It was found that the corrosion film of the alloy Pb – 0.08 wt.% Ca – 1.2 wt.% Sn appears as flaky crystal structure, while with the addition of 0.03% Ag and 0.06% Zn into Pb – 0.08 wt.% Ca – 1.2 wt.% Sn, the corrosion film being transformed into the crystalline columnar, compact structure. XRD analysis shows that the relative diffraction density of PbO₂ increases with the addition of Ag and Zn. The capacity loss of the battery with the Pb–Ca–Sn–Zn grids is significant less than that with the Pb–Ca–Sn–Ag and Pb–Ca–Sn grids, and the life of battery with the Pb–Ca–Sn–Zn grids is longer than that with the Pb–Ca–Sn–Ag and Pb–Ca–Sn grids. The addition of Zn into Pb–Ca–Sn alloy can obviously improve the corrosion resistance of the alloy and form a new positive grid material for the lead-acid battery.