Improving Formation Efficiency of Lead Acid Battery using Hydrogen Peroxide as an Additive

Formation is one of the critical step in lead acid battery manufacturing process. The purpose of formation process is to convert the cured paste into electrochemically active porous paste i. e. lead dioxide as positive plate and sponge lead as negative plate respectively. In the present work we studied Improving formation efficiency of lead acid battery using hydrogen peroxide as an additive. This additive is oxidizing in nature. When this additive is subjected to high temperature or dissolved in water, it releases nascent oxygen. The nascent oxygen reacts with semi-conductive lead monoxide and converts it as conductive lead dioxide. The presence of lead dioxide in cured paste thus increases conductivity of plate and reduces the formation energy required for conversion during formation. So, to establish the impact of this additive on lead dioxide conversion and formation energy, samples made with and without addition of hydrogen peroxide. From XRD analysis, conversion of formed paste and formed cell discharge capacity test, it was observed that this additive can reduce the formation energy potentially up to 20 %.