Possibilities of suppressing corrosion of lead alloys in lead-acid batteries with ionic liquids additives

The paper presents the influence of bisulfate and sulfate ionic liquids additives on the intensity of the corrosion process of PbCaSn alloys. These types of lead alloys are used for grids production by expanded metal technology. Ionic liquids used in presented study contained alkylpyridinium and alkylimidazolium cations. Electrolyte consisted of 37% sulfuric acid with 5 mg cm(-3) of particular ionic liquid. Experimental procedure included analysis of potential changes, corrosion current density and polarization resistance determined by DC and AC methods. It has been shown that in the case of bisulfate ionic liquids containing both alkylpyridinium and alkylimidazolium cations, corrosion potential shifts about 200 mV in the direction of more positive values. Moreover, sudden reduction of the corrosion current density and an increase of polarization resistance in values relative to the initial ones have taken place. Analogical effects were not observed for sulphate ionic liquids. The results of the research are creating new perspectives for improvement of the lead-acid batteries performance based on ionic liquids.