Evaluating the lead affinity of graphite additives in lead-acid batteries by electrochemical deposition

[Display omitted] •A novel method for measuring the lead affinity of graphite materials is presented•Lead is electrochemically deposited from aqueous solution on graphite electrodes•The number density of nucleation sites is calculated by adopting a 3D nucleation model•Expanded graphite provides significantly more nucleation sites than synthetic graphite•The findings correlate with the integration of graphite particles into lead electrodes The improvement of lead-acid batteries with respect to charge acceptance and cycle life in partial state of charge operations due to carbon additives in negative electrodes is state of the art. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about the mechanisms which generate these enhancements. Especially the influence of the physicochemical connection between the carbon additives and the surrounding lead skeleton has not been investigated in much detail yet, but seems to play an important role. Therefore, we developed a new method for characterizing the degree of interaction between lead and carbon additives with focus on graphite materials. By potentiostatic deposition of lead on graphite electrodes, we observe a correlation between the deposition overpotential and the number density of nucleation sites. Chronoamperometry is used to calculate the number density of nucleation sites on graphite electrodes which is in accordance with microscopic observations. We found that expanded graphite exhibits a significantly higher number of nucleation sites than synthetic graphite. Finally, a correlation between this number density of nucleation sites and the integration of the graphite particles in real lead electrodes is observed. Thus, the technique can be used to predict the integration of different graphite particles into the negative active material.