What is a Lead Acid Battery: Structure, Working, Discharge and Charge

Friends, today in this article we will know what is lead acid battery, construction of lead acid battery, working of lead acid battery. In this article, I am going to give information about all these in a very good way. So let’s get started.

What is a Lead Acid Battery

A battery is usually a combination of several cells of the same nature. The design and assembly of lead acid battery is as follows-

Lead Acid Battery Design

The secondary cell consists of several plus plates and minus plates. All the positive plates are soldered to a single terminal of the battery which is called the positive (+) terminal of the battery. The negative (-) plates are connected at the other terminal called the negative (-) terminal of the battery. Each positive plate is sandwiched by two negative (-) plates. Thus the negative plate is at the end of the battery.

To protect against short circuit between the plus and minus plates, thin sheets of wrought wood, rubber, PVC or other insulating material are placed between the plates. This short circuit is caused by the active material falling from the positive plate to the bottom of the battery. The separator should be properly porous for the matter to reach everywhere.

As we know cell has two terminals plus (+) and minus (-). The terminals of cells or batteries are often made of lead so that the electrolytic sulphuric acid does not rust. The terminals are made thick to keep the cell high current and their resistance low. The substances which combine to store electrical energy in the form of chemical energy are called active materials.

Working of Lead Acid Battery

The working of a lead acid battery can be understood by its charge and discharge.

Lead Acid Battery Discharge

When the lead acid cell is fully charged, the positive (+) plate or lead oxide is dark brown in color and the negative plate or cathode is light gray in color of pure lead. When a load is applied to the battery, the chemical energy converts into electrical energy and supplies electrical energy to the load. Therefore, at the time of immersion, the chemical is converted into electrical energy. The battery supplies current to the external circuit when the cell starts to discharge.

Sulfuric acid (H2SO4 ), splits into hydrogen (2H+) and sulfate (SO₄²- ) ions. The current starts flowing from the minus (-) plate to the money (+) plate.

Hydrogen ions move towards the positive (+) plate and sulfate ions towards the negative plate. Hydrogen, PbO2, and oxygen combine on the positive plate to form lead sulphate (PbSO4). The chemical reaction is as follows

Charging of Lead Acid Battery

The DC voltage required to charge an immersed battery is slightly higher than the battery voltage. While charging, the positive terminal of the charger is connected to the positive terminal of the battery and the negative (-) terminal to the negative () terminal of the battery.

Inside the cell, the current flows from the positive (+) plate to the negative (-) plate and splits sulfuric acid (H2SO4) into sulfate ions and hydrogen ions (2H-) in the electrolyte. Sulfate ions move to the anode and hydrogen ions to the cathode which react with sulfate ions to form lead peroxide and pure lead, respectively. The following chemical reaction takes place in it.

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what did you learn today :-

Now you must have known what is lead acid battery, construction of lead acid battery, working of lead acid battery, charging of lead acid battery, discharge of lead acid battery. You must have got the answer of all these questions very well.

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