Lead acid batteries use lead and sulfuric acid to store and generate electricity. They are cheap and easy to manufacture, but have a low power-to-weight ratio. They are commonly used in automotive electric starters and other cost-sensitive applications.
Like all batteries, a lead acid battery uses a chemical reaction to store and generate electricity. Lead-acid batteries use lead and lead oxide for the battery’s cathode and anode components and sulfuric acid for the electrolyte. These batteries are easy and cheap to manufacture, can deliver a high peak discharge, and are rechargeable. However, they don’t hold as much energy per unit of weight as more modern batteries. This type of battery is widely used to power automotive electric starters in other applications where cost is more of a factor than weight.
All batteries use a cathode and an anode, made up of substances that would exchange electrons with each other to reach a state of equilibrium were it not for the presence of an electrolyte solution that inhibits this transfer of electrons. When current is drawn from a battery, electrons are allowed to flow between the two poles, from the anode to the cathode, and the inhibited chemical reaction takes place. No electrolyte is capable of perfectly isolating the anode and cathode, so all batteries discharge slowly over time. Most lead-acid batteries employ multiple cells, so that the same chemical reaction occurs in each cell at the same time, a process that increases the battery’s peak discharge potential while reducing the total power it can store.
In a lead acid battery, both the anode and the cathode also interact chemically with the electrolyte solution. In a charged battery, the anode consists of lead and the cathode of lead oxide. As the battery discharges, both electrodes are converted to lead sulphate, as the electrolyte bath becomes less and less acidic, until only water remains in the solution. This process is reversed when a lead-acid battery is charged, and when fully charged, a lead-acid battery’s electrolyte solution is a highly acidic bath of one-third sulfuric acid.
This type of battery is relatively easy to manufacture, as all the materials needed are plentiful. Due to the relatively low power-to-weight ratio in a lead-acid storage battery, however, some compromises have to be made in their design. Batteries designed to deliver large amounts of current, such as those used to start motor vehicles, must be made by combining many smaller battery cells with large, thin, and fragile electrodes. When power is needed for a longer period of time, lead-acid batteries should contain fewer but larger and more durable cells. Such a lead-acid battery would be a poor choice for starting vehicles, but excellent for providing small amounts of portable power for computer backup devices or for appliances such as electric lawn mowers, which never have to travel far from a source of electricity. diet.
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