Renewal of Lead Battery Electrodes Using a Plasma—Chemical Processing Method

Abstract

The increasing use of renewable energy sources increases the need for electricity storage systems. In this work, the possibility of renewing worn-out battery Pb electrodes by applying Ar and O2 gas plasma in a magnetron vacuum system was investigated. As shown by the SEM results of the surface of Pb electrodes, after exposure to O2 plasma, the surface of Pb electrodes consists of irregularly shaped microstructures. Analyzing the XRD results revealed that the spectrum peaks of the Pb4O3SO4 compound are more pronounced in the case of the electrodes of the worn battery than those electrodes that were exposed to Ar and O2 gas plasma. It was observed that the process of renewing Pb electrodes in Ar and O2 plasma has a positive effect. This effect is also confirmed by the results of EDS studies, as the chemical compounds that inhibit the charge/discharge process are reduced, and the percentage of pure lead increases from 68.2% (in the case of worn electrodes) to 81–82% (when the worn electrodes were processed using Ar and O2 plasma).