meeting report
Carbon Materials for Lead Acid Batteries Presentation at the 11th European Lead Battery Conference
Warsaw, Poland
September 23-26, 2008
- Timcal Graphite & Carbon
A talk by Jean-Yves Huot of Timcal Graphite & Carbon ended the 11ELBC event in Warsaw, Poland on Friday, September 26. The first part of his presentation emphasized the presence and the role of carbon materials in various battery chemistries. The second part was dedicated to carbon materials in negative electrodes of lead-acid batteries. In the past few years, several groups indeed found that larger addition of carbon materials to the negative electrode decreases electrode sulfation and improves performance under partial-state-of-charge operation.
Huot showed that carbon materials are key components of most modern batteries.
He described the carbon materials that are currently used in various battery chemistries such as primary ZnC and alkaline batteries and rechargeable lithium batteries. He showed that the performance of carbon materials can be predicted from out-of-cell performance indicators such as electrical resistivity of dry carbon-active material blends.
He presented a few examples of electrode formulations.
The second part of this presentation was devoted to lead acid batteries (LAB). Huot summarized the rationale behind the selection of carbon materials that are being tested in negative electrodes of LABs. Although the mechanism of the carbon effects in the negative electrode remains largely unknown, he presented properties of graphite and carbon black that might impact on the carbon effect in LABs, and the possible role of carbon materials.
Huot concluded by stating that battery-grade synthetic graphite and conductive carbon black used in battery chemistries share a common role of conductive additives. The selection of the right carbon family, grade, size distribution and percentage in the negative electrode of LABs is very challenging. On the other hand, the search for the mechanism of the carbon effects could benefit from testing various carbon families and grades, and comparing with other battery chemistries.