Higher Power Density Lead Acid Batteries

这项研究是关于混合动力汽车中使用的电池。大多数电池由三个主要部分组成：正极、负极和电解液。电极连接到电池的端子，允许电流流入和流出；对电池进行充电和放电。电极上覆盖着“活性物质”，它与电解液发生反应，以化学键的形式释放或储存电能。在老式汽车电池中，过去可以通过添加去离子水来补充电解液；然而，现代电池通常不再以这种方式制造用于汽车应用。铅酸电池在汽车点火系统中使用已有70多年的历史。它们安全可靠，在低温和高温下都很可靠，易于回收，使用寿命长。在过去的十年里，几家汽车制造商已经开始销售混合动力汽车，如日产Leaf、丰田普锐斯和本田Insight。这些车辆和其他类似的车辆在电池中储存了一些能量。有几种方法可以存储能量，但常见的一种方法是在司机减速时储存能量，并在司机加速时释放能量。这平衡了对内燃机的需求，节省了燃料。铅电池还没有用于量产电动汽车，但已经在几辆测试车上使用。一些铅酸电池已经用于原型混合动力汽车，然后拆卸以观察它们的老化情况。这表明电池电极的老化并不均匀。许多研究人员提出了各种不同的电池电极设计，以使电极老化更均匀，从而尽可能有效地利用电池。这些设计大多局限于电极是扁平的或盘绕成螺旋形状的情况。即使在螺旋形状中，电极之间的距离也或多或少是恒定的(它们是平行的)。电池制造商几乎没有兴趣放弃平行板，因为人们认为生产成本将增加，或者生产将更加困难和昂贵。但现在二氧化碳目标如此严格，必须尽一切努力最大限度地利用可再生能源或二次能源(如充电电池)。运输(不包括国际航空旅行)约占二氧化碳排放量的四分之一。因此，通过专注于汽车应用，总体上大幅减少二氧化碳是可能的。当然，这方面的任何改进都适用于其他领域，例如来自风力涡轮机和太阳能电池板的家庭储电。如果能够证明改变测试电池的几何形状是有利的，而一家制造商采用了其他制造商会效仿的设计，否则就有可能处于商业劣势。这项研究将改变铅酸电池电极的形状，使电池在大多数情况下寿命更均匀。这将确保电池尽可能地轻和小。本研究还将探索制造更复杂电极的可行性，以确保工作的输出具有实用价值。电池电极几何形状调整的想法并不局限于铅电池。经过适当的考虑，它可能适用于包括锂电池在内的大多数电池类型。

This research is about batteries used in hybrid cars. Most batteries consist of three main parts: a positive electrode, a negative electrode and an electrolyte. The electrodes are connected to the terminals of a battery and allow electricity to flow in and out; charging and discharging the battery. The electrodes are covered in "active material", which reacts with the electrolyte to release or store electrical energy in the form of chemical bonds. In older car batteries, it used to be possible to top up the electrolyte by adding de-ionised water; however, modern batteries are generally not made this way for automotive applications any more.Lead acid batteries have been used in vehicle ignition systems for more than 70 years. They are safe, reliable at low and high temperatures, easy to recycle and can have a long working life. In the last decade, several car manufacturers have started selling hybrid electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. These vehicles, and others like them, store some energy in a battery. There are several approaches to how the energy is stored, but a common one is to store energy when the driver slows down and release it when the driver accelerates. This evens out the demand on the internal combustion engine and saves fuel. Lead batteries have not been used in a production electric car yet, but have been used in several test vehicles.Some lead acid batteries have been used in prototype hybrid vehicles and then dismantled to observe how they aged. This has shown that battery electrodes do not age evenly. A number of researchers have proposed various designs of battery electrode to make the electrode age more evenly and therefore use the battery as efficiently as possible. These designs have mostly been limited to situations in which the electrodes are flat or are coiled into a spiral shape. Even in a spiral shape, the distance between the electrodes is more or less constant (they are parallel). There is little appetite among battery manufacturers to move away from parallel plates because it is believed that the cost of production will increase or that production will be more difficult and expensive.However, CO2 targets are now at such stringent levels that every effort must be made to maximise the use of renewable energy sources or secondary energy sources (like rechargeable batteries). Transport (excluding international air travel) is responsible for about a quarter of CO2 emissions. Therefore, considerable overall CO2 reduction is possible by focusing on automotive applications. Of course, any improvements in this area are applicable to other areas, such as domestic electricity storage from wind turbines and solar panels. If it can be shown to be advantageous to vary the geometry in a test battery and a single manufacture takes up the design other manufacturers will follow or risk being at a commercial disadvantage.This research will change the shape of lead acid battery electrodes to make the battery age more evenly under most circumstances. This will ensure that the battery is as light and small as possible. This research will also investigate the feasibility of manufacturing more complex electrodes to ensure that the output of the work has practical value. The idea of geometry adjustment of battery electrodes is not limited to Lead batteries. With suitable consideration it is likely to be amenable to most battery types including Lithium.