Lead Acid Car Battery Chemistry

Each cell contains two types of electrodes one for each half of the lead acid redox reaction a negative lead pb anode and a positive lead dioxide pbo2 cathode.

Lead acid car battery chemistry.

The reactants that generate an electric current in these batteries via chemical reactions can be regenerated by passing current through the battery recharging. These two plates are separated using a separator which is an insulating material. The chemical reactions that occur in secondary cells are reversible. A simple explanation for how a lead acid battery works.

Your typical 12 volt lead acid car battery consists of six lead acid galvanic cells connected in series and housed within a battery case. A lead acid battery consists of plates separator and electrolyte hard plastic with a hard rubber case. In a normal charge the chemical reaction is reversed. In the batteries the plates are of two types positive and negative.

Lead acid batteries can be classified as secondary batteries. Remember the two half reactions we discussed in the previous section. Most lead acid batteries are constructed with the positive electrode the anode made from a lead antimony alloy with lead iv oxide pressed into it although batteries designed for maximum life use a lead calcium alloy. The electrodes are usually made of lead dioxide and metallic lead while the electrolyte is a sulfuric acid solution.

Other types of rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles include lead acid flooded deep cycle and valve regulated lead acid nickel cadmium nickel metal hydride and less commonly zinc air and sodium nickel chloride zebra batteries. The positive one consists of lead dioxide and negative one consists of sponge lead. The lead pb on the negative plate and the lead dioxide pbo2 on the positive plate are converted to lead sulphate pbso4. A lead acid battery is made up of a number of lead acid galvanic voltaic cells connected up in series.

This tutorial covers the working principle of a lead acid battery and how it is constructed. When an sla battery is being discharged. Go to the next page for some hands on battery experiments. Lead and lead dioxide the active materials on the battery s plates react with sulfuric acid in the electrolyte to form lead sulfate.

The best way to understand these reactions is to see them for yourself. The lead sulfate first forms in a finely divided amorphous state and easily reverts to lead lead dioxide and sulfuric acid when the battery recharges. When a lead acid cell is producing electricity discharging it is converting chemical energy into electrical energy. At the same time the sulphuric acid h2so4 is converted to water h2o.