Lead-Acid Battery: Tetrabasic Lead Sulfate as a Paste Material for PositivePlates

There are two major causes of positive plate capacity degradation in float service lead-acid batteries: (i) corrosion and growth of the lead or lead alloy grid, 1 and (ii) softening and disintegration of the P b 0 2 matrix. The latter has been extensively discussed by J. Burbank. 2 In order to improve the stability of the P b 0 2 matrix, it would be invaluable to have answers to questions concerning the nature of the grid/Pb0 2 interface, the nature of the inter-particle bonding in the P b 0 2 matrix and the mechanisms of the charge and discharge reactions. It is paradoxical that, although the lead-acid battery has been in use for over a century, answers to these and other fundamental questions are unknown. This is in large part attributable to the complexity of the lead-acid system which in turn is partly the result of extensive variability of materials and processes used in lead-acid battery fabrication. In conventional positive plate fabrication, the starting material is usually a mixture of some or all of the following species: Pb, PbO (orthorhombic and tetragonal), and Pb 3 0 4 . The powder is mixed with 1305