Question

Write the chemistry of recharging the lead storage battery, highlighting all the materials that are involved during recharging.

Answer 1

A lead storage battery consists of a lead anode, a grid of lead packed with lead oxide (PbO₂) as the cathode, and a 38% solution of sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) as an electrolyte.

When the battery is in use, the following cell reactions take place:

At anode:

At cathode:

The overall cell reaction is given by,

When a battery is charged, the reverse of all these reactions takes place.

Hence, on charging, present at the anode and cathode is converted into and respectively.