Evaluation of hollow, glass microspheres used as an additive in negative, lead/acid battery paste

This paper investigates the use of lightweight, hollow, glass microspheres in the negative paste of lead/acid batteries. The paste density for this study was varied from 2.09 g/cm 3 to 4.58 g/cm 3 where the low number is associated with a high loading of glass microspheres. The capacity (A h) performance of the paste was evaluated with plates having similar thickness and porosities. At low rates, the capacity of the paste with glass microspheres was reduced in proportion to the amount of microspheres used in the paste. This behavior suggests that paste conductivity is the low rate limiting mechanism for negative plates. At the higher specific rates, the performance of paste with glass microspheres was similar to the paste having no glass microspheres.