Gaston Plante Medal acceptance speech

Patrick T. Moseley from International Lead Zinc Research Organization shared his views about research of lead-acid batteries. He said that when he first started to study the lead-acid battery the major concern was that utilization of the active material on the positive plate was very limited. He had a background in crystal structure analysis and therefore started research using diffraction and scattering techniques. He with his team at the Harwell Lab. developed a scanning laser method for following the distribution of alpha PbO in the corrosion layer by imaging photocurrent. When he shifted the focus of research to deep-cycle valve-regulated batteries, he faced a problem due to a phenomenon termed as 'Premature Capacity Loss' (PCL). He said that solution for this problem was ultra battery, which incorporate the extra carbon in an extension of the negative adding a capacitive function.