INFLUENCE OF SEPARATOR STRUCTURE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF VALVE-REGULATED BATTERIES

Glass-microfibre separators used in valve-regulated lead/acid batteries have anisotropic structures with pores through the separator larger than those in the other two planes. The size of these pores depends on the fibre composition and certain processing treatments during manufacture. The resulting structure has a considerable influence on the wettability and acid distribution within a cell, which in turn affects the internal resistance, and the recharge and oxygen-recombination efficiencies. The effect of the contrasting structure of plates and separators is discussed. A better understanding of these structural influences will help to design separators with optimal wetting characteristics for particular battery applications.