Novel, in situ, electrochemical methodology for determining lead-acid battery positive active material decay during life cycle testing

Understanding the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of lead-acid battery structural and electrochemical changes during cycling through in-situ techniques is of the utmost importance for increasing the performance and life of these batteries in real-world applications. Here, we describe the application of Incremental Capacity Analysis and Differential Voltage techniques, which are used frequently in the field of lithium-ion batteries, to lead-acid battery chemistries for the first time. These analyses permit structural data to be retrieved from simple electrical tests that infers directly the state of health of the positive active material. We present evidence from full-scale 12 V batteries to demonstrate the techniques and prove their utility to the space. Evaluation of capacity and cycle life testing supports a new theory of Positive Active Material utilization, the Single-Entity/Dual Behaviour-Hypothesis, which is described within our work. •Lithium-ion cell analysis tools are applied to lead-acid batteries for the 1st time.•Incremental Capacity Analysis and Differential Voltage plots reveal PAM behaviour.•A nondestructive, in situ methodology for understanding PAM condition is presented.•A Single-Entity/Dual-Behaviour hypothesis is discussed and applied to previous works.