The corrosion resistance of the positive grid alloy plays an important role on the performance and service life of lead-acid batteries. There are many parameters influencing the corrosion behavior of the grid alloy. Grid surface roughness, which is of importance from a manufacturing point of view, is a parameter that has received rather less attention. In the present study, the dependence of the electrochemical and the passive behavior of the positive grid alloy on electrode surface roughness was investigated. Cyclic voltammetry, potentiodynamic polarization, galvanostatic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Mott-Schottky analysis were used to evaluate the influence of surface roughness on the electrochemical properties of the grid alloy. The results indicated that increasing the surface roughness hindered formation of the passive film and increased the corrosion resistance of the lead alloy electrode. Moreover, it was found that the donor density of the passive film is proportional to the surface roughness.

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