Glossary
Active Material
The chemical pastes which, in combination with the battery acid, produce electric current.
They adhere to a current collector made of lead or a lead alloy (often in the form of a grid) and together with it form the positive (+) and negative (-) plates of a battery. On the positive plate the active material is lead dioxide (PbO2), on the negative plate lead.
The more active material there is, the greater the amount of current a battery can supply. This is crucial for the cold start capability of batteries. For this reason, current collectors are built in a grid shape or, as with the armor plate, consist of numerous lead tubes with the largest possible surface area.