High-performance porous lead/graphite composite electrode for bipolar lead-acid batteries

In general, thicker active material bipolar electrode's specific capacity and cycle life are very poor owing to its low bonding strength between the active material and the substrate and the diffusion rate of the sulfuric acid electrolyte inside the active material. In this paper, we synthesize a novel attached and porous lead/graphite composite electrode for bipolar lead-acid battery and can effectively solve these problems. The graphite/polytetrafluoroethylene emulsion is employed to improve the bonding strength and conductivity and the porous can provide electrolyte diffusion channels. The specific capacities of 2-mm thick positive active material at 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2C can attain 75.99, 58.98, 47.97, and 33.36mAhg(-1). The discharge voltage platform is also relatively high and no rapid decline with increasing discharge rate. Furthermore, after 80cycles, the specific capacity does not drop evidently. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.