It is generally recognized that the life of motive power lead-acid batteries can be shortened by a variety of factors relating to service conditions, yet the best made and the most conscientiously used batteries still only have a relatively modest life expectancy.

Why is this so and what can be done about it?

Every time a lead-acid battery is charged, a tiny amount of lead and antimony metal finds its way from the positive grids to the negative electrodes. Given enough time, (3-8 years), this results in excessive gassing and the battery losing ampere-hour capacity and in its eventual failure.

The underlying mechanism behind this metal migration is electroplating. The outstanding advantage of the ion selective screening concept is that simple hands-on procedures can show the mechanism at work.

The particular experiments shown are of a type that can easily be duplicated by technically minded persons using a minimum of materials, providing what amounts to a "shorthand" verification of the potential of the ion selective screening substance.

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At the Molecular Level | What is Electroplating?