Sulfuric Acid Corrosion of Low Sb - Pb Battery Alloys

Abstract

The corrosion properties of low Sb - Pb alloys developed for maintenance free motive power industrial batteries was studied by a bare grid constant current method and compared to those of the conventional Pb- 6% Sb alloy. Low Sb-Pb alloys with Se and As grain refiners were found to have higher corrosion rates than the Pb - 6% Sb alloy or the ternary alloy with Cd which had a comparable corrosion rate with the Pb - 6% Sb alloy. However the ternary alloy was found to have severe grain boundary type corrosion whereas the others had uniform attacks similar to the conventional alloy. The Cd alloy cells were also found to moss, excessively while the cells of the alloy with As did not moss at all. Premature failure could therefore result from using the Cd alloy while only some scarifies to life expectancy could result from using the grain refined alloys in place of the Pb-6% alloy, in batteries.