Modification of Graphite Felt with Lead (II) Formate and Acetate—An Approach for Preparation of Lightweight Electrodes for a Lead-Acid Battery

Lead-acid battery (LAB) weight is a major downside stopping it from being adapted to electric/hybrid vehicles. Lead grids constitute up to 50% of LAB electrode’s weight and it only ensures electric connection to electrochemically active material and provides structural integrity. Using graphite felt (GF) as a current collector can reduce the electrode’s weight while increasing the surface area. Modification of GF with lead (II) oxide using impregnation and calcination techniques and lead (II) formate and acetate as precursors was conducted to produce composite electrodes. It was found that lead (II) formate is not a viable material for this purpose, whereas multiple impregnation in lead (II) acetate saturated solution and calcination in air leads to thermal destruction GF. However, impregnation and calcination under nitrogen atmosphere in three cycles produced a sample of good quality with a mass loading of lead (II) oxide that was 17.18 g g−1 GF. This equates to only 5.5% of the total mass of composite electrode to be GF, which is immensely lower than lead grid mass in traditional electrodes. This result shows that a possible lightweight alternative of LAB electrode can be produced using the proposed modification method.