The property and application of lead dioxide electrode

The lead dioxide is a kind of nonquantitative compound. Its general formula can be expressed as PbO_1.95~PbO_1.98. Because of its oxygen lacking in structure, which leads to its surplus positive electrical charge in the structure of lead dioxide, it has the electric conductivity similar to metals. It can be used to make a nuclear magnetic resonance research of lead dioxide by using ²⁰⁷Pb which proves its electronic behavior is similar to lead. The electrical conductivity of the lead dioxide and some other anode materials is shown as follows:

 Table1.1  The electrical conductivity of common anode materials

Table 1.1 shows that the conductivity of lead dioxide is only a little poorer than platinum while better than titanium and graphite. Lead dioxide can be classified into two kinds, namely, a-PbO₂ and b-PbO₂  according to the types of crystals.a-PbO₂ belongs to the rhombic system while b-PbO₂ belongs to the rutile type crystal lattice of tetragonal crystal system. As the clad layer, these two kinds of lead dioxide differ greatly in physical and chemical property, Table 1.2 is about the performance comparison between the clad layer of a-PbO₂  and   the clad layer of b-PbO₂: