Construction of acidic batteries

Acid batteries are mainly composed of three parts: containers, plates, and separators. The container of an acidic battery is used to store electrolyte and support plates, so it must have characteristics such as preventing acid leakage, corrosion resistance, sturdiness, and high temperature resistance. According to different materials, there are four commonly used lead-acid battery containers: glass tank, lead lined wood tank, plastic tank, and hard rubber tank.

The electrode plates of acid batteries used in general offshore oil engineering are made of lead antimony alloy grid format, and the grid is filled with active substances. The active substance of the positive electrode plate is lead dioxide (PbO2), while the active substance of the negative electrode plate is sponge like pure lead. In order to increase capacity, both the positive and negative plates of the battery are made into many pieces, which are connected in parallel to form two groups, forming the positive and negative electrodes of the battery. The voltage of a single battery composed of each group of positive and negative plates is about 2V. In practical applications, 3 or 6 identical single batteries are often connected in series to form a group. The negative electrode plate of a battery is always one more plate than the positive electrode plate. Each positive electrode plate is sandwiched between two negative electrode plates, causing chemical reactions on both sides of the positive electrode plate, resulting in the same expansion and contraction, reducing the chance of plate bending, and thus extending the service life of the electrode plate. Because the negative electrode plate has much less expansion and contraction during charging and discharging, it is also thinner than the positive electrode plate during manufacturing. Only one side of the outer two negative electrode plates has a chemical reaction with the positive electrode, so its thickness is thinner than the middle negative electrode plate.

The function of a partition is to insulate the positive and negative plates of a battery from each other, and can be made of wood, hard rubber, plastic, etc. In order to allow the electrolyte to flow freely, the structure of the separator should be porous, but it should not allow the detached active substance to come into contact with adjacent electrode plates through the separator.