Addition of activated carbon fiber in the negative plate of lead‑acid battery

Abstract

In recent years, several scientific works have reported that the addition of carbon materials to the negative electrode in lead-acid batteries can improve the electrical performance of these energy accumulators. In this work, the effect of textile polyacrylonitrile derived activated carbon fiber (ACF), used before as reusable adsorbents of pharmaceutical compounds, to the negative plate of a lead-acid battery was studied. The physicochemical and electrochemical properties of a negative plate with addition of 0.1 (wt%) of ACF and the same plate without addition of ACF were compared. Electrical tests of the ACF containing batteries showed an increase in the number of charge/discharge cycles, between 15.4 and 47.8% higher, compared to the non ACF battery. This improvement would be related to an improvement of the electrochemical (higher charge capacity and lower resistance) and textural (higher specific surface area) properties caused by the addition of the ACF.