Relativity and the lead-acid battery

TL;DR

This study uses ab initio calculations to analyze relativistic effects on the standard voltage of lead-acid batteries, revealing that relativistic effects contribute significantly to the voltage.

Contribution

It provides a detailed computational analysis of relativistic effects on lead-acid battery voltages, which was not previously quantified.

Findings

Relativistic effects account for 1.7-1.8 V of the standard voltage.

Calculated average voltage (2.13 V) closely matches experimental value (2.11 V).

Relativistic effects mainly originate from PbO2 and PbSO4 components.

Abstract

The energies of the solid reactants in the lead-acid battery are calculated ab initio using two different basis sets at non-relativistic, scalar relativistic, and fully relativistic levels, and using several exchange-correlation potentials. The average calculated standard voltage is 2.13 V, compared with the experimental value of 2.11 V. All calculations agree in that 1.7-1.8 V of this standard voltage arise from relativistic effects, mainly from PbO2 but also from PbSO4.