Design of the VRLA Battery Real-Time Monitoring System Based on Wireless Communication.

The VRLA (valve-regulated lead-acid) battery is an important part of a direct current (DC) power system. In order to resolve issues of large volume, complicated wiring, and single function for a battery monitoring system at present, we propose to build a novel intelligent-health-monitoring system. The system is based on the ZigBee wireless communication module for collecting voltage, temperature, internal resistance, and battery current in real-time. A general packet radio service (GPRS) network is employed for interacting data with the cloud-monitoring platform. The system can predict the remaining capacity of the battery combined with the software algorithm for realizing real-time monitoring of the battery's health status and fault-warning, providing a basis for ensuring the safe and reliable operation of the battery. In addition, the system effectively integrates most of the circuits of the battery status collector onto one chip, which greatly reduces the size and the power consumption of the collector and also provides a possibility for embedding each VRLA battery with a chip that can monitor the health status during the whole life. The test results indicate that the system has the characteristics of real-time monitoring, high precision, small-volume, and comprehensive functions.

Unleashing the electrochemical performance of zirconia nanoparticles on valve-regulated lead acid battery.

The electrochemical act of valve-regulated lead acid batteries can be enhanced by conductive materials like metal oxides. This work aims to examine the preparation and influence of zirconia on poly(vinyl alcohol) based gel valve-regulated lead acid battery. Characterizations like Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ionic conductivity, water retention study, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and galvanostatic charge-discharge techniques were done. The optimized gel system exhibited a discharge capacity of 198.45 µAh cm-2 at the current density of 0.6 mA cm-2. The battery cell with an optimized gel matrix displayed a maximum discharge capacity of 22.5 µAh at a current of 20 µA. After 500 continuous cycles, the battery attained a discharge capacity retention of 91 %. The presence of zirconia will increase the electrochemical performance of gel valve-regulated lead acid batteries.

A Novel Poly(vinyl alcohol)-tetraethylorthosilicate Hybrid Gel Electrolyte for Lead Storage Battery.

The gel electrolyte significantly influences gel valve-regulated lead acid battery performance. To address this, the paper describes the preparation of novel polymer gel electrolytes using poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) for valve-regulated lead-acid batteries. FTIR technique is used to confirm the chemical reaction between PVA and TEOS. Electrochemical analyses such as cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were applied to optimize the concentration of PVA-TEOS polymer gel electrolyte. The optimum concentration of polymer gel electrolyte was determined as 20 wt% of TEOS in PVA (PE-1) with higher anodic peak and lower Rs and Rct values. The Galvanostatic charge-discharge tests were performed on the optimized gel system prototype battery. The highest capacity of 6.86 × 10-5 Ah at a current density of 0.2 mA cm-2 was achieved with an excellent capacity retention ratio of 85.7% over 500 cycles. The exceptional cycle performance and high capacity make PVA-TEOS gel electrolyte a promising candidate for practical battery application.