Lead Acid Car Battery Chemistry

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.

Lead acid car battery chemistry.

The chemical reactions that occur in secondary cells are reversible. In the batteries the plates are of two types positive and negative. When an sla battery is being discharged. The electrodes are usually made of lead dioxide and metallic lead while the electrolyte is a sulfuric acid solution.

The best way to understand these reactions is to see them for yourself. Your typical 12 volt lead acid car battery consists of six lead acid galvanic cells connected in series and housed within a battery case. These two plates are separated using a separator which is an insulating material. 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.

This is the chemistry used in a typical car battery. 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 negative electrode the cathode is made from pure lead and both electrodes are immersed in sulphuric acid. This tutorial covers the working principle of a lead acid battery and how it is constructed.

Lead acid batteries can be classified as secondary batteries. The lead pb on the negative plate and the lead dioxide pbo2 on the positive plate are converted to lead sulphate pbso4. When a lead acid cell is producing electricity discharging it is converting chemical energy into electrical energy. A simple explanation for how a lead acid battery works.

Discharging a lead acid battery is a spontaneous redox reaction. In a normal charge the chemical reaction is reversed. At the same time the sulphuric acid h2so4 is converted to water h2o. A lead acid battery is made up of a number of lead acid galvanic voltaic cells connected up in series.

The reactants that generate an electric current in these batteries via chemical reactions can be regenerated by passing current through the battery recharging. The positive one consists of lead dioxide and negative one consists of sponge lead. A lead acid battery consists of plates separator and electrolyte hard plastic with a hard rubber case. Go to the next page for some hands on battery experiments.