Gelled electrolyte for nanostructured lead-acid battery

In recent years, the storage of energy produced by renewable sources has become a topic of great interest. Lead-acid batteries are widely used in this field, in particular those based on VRLA (Valve-Regulated-Lead Acid) technology, in which the electrolyte is immobilized inside the battery. In this paper, the use of a hydrogel as an electrolyte was considered. Hydrogel can be described as a three-dimensional network of a hydrophilic polymer that can absorb large amounts of water (or aqueous solutions) without dissolving. Pb and PbO2 nanostructured electrodes were used in the battery that used hydrogel as an electrolyte. Two different types of hydrogels were synthesised, both based on PVA th…