This master's thesis deals with the issue of lead-acid batteries, their charging methods and issue of thermal processes in lead-acid batteries. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first section describes the theoretical knowledge of lead-acid batteries, such as history of lead-acid battery, structure, principle of operation, methods of charging and thermal processes taking place in the lead-acid battery. The second part describes in detail the production of experimental electrodes. The last section describes the automatic data logger for measuring and experiments, which were focused on pulse charging method with variable duty cycle pulses.

O desenvolvimento de piezoeletretos, com estruturas de bolhas pré-moldadas, pelo Grupo de Alta Tensão e Materiais (GATM) da Universidade de São Paulo, abriu novas oportunidades para pesquisas relacionadas com o aprisionamento de cargas elétricas, isto por serem as cargas aprisionadas nas superfícies das bolhas as principais responsáveis pelo desempenho dos piezoeletretos. Logo o objetivo deste trabalho é estudar a influência de alguns fatores externos no aprisionamento de cargas na superfície dos polímeros. E para explorar fatores como temperatura e ação de reagentes químicos utilizados na limpeza dos filmes, foi desenvolvido, baseado no método de sensor capacitivo, um dispositivo capaz de realizar medidas sensíveis de cargas superficiais. Outro objetivo foi a implementação de uma metodologia que permita realizar medidas de forma repetitiva e segura. Por ser o material utilizado no preparo dos piezoeletretos do grupo, o principal polímero estudado neste trabalho foi o Teflon® FEP embora o dispositivo desenvolvido permita as medidas de qualquer material polimérico. / The development of new piezoelectrets with bubbles structures by the High- Voltage and Materials Group (GATM) at University of São Paulo, create new opportunities to investigate external parameters that can affect the charge storage in polymer surfaces, since the efficiency of this piezoelectrets depends on the density of charges trapped on the internal surface of the bubbles. Now the aim of this work is to study the influence of a few external factors on the charges trapped over the polymer surface. To explore factors like temperature, chemical reaction due the sample cleaning, a sensitive charge measurement device based on the capacitor probe method is going to be implemented together with a methodology that allow reproducibility of the measurements. The polymer that is going to be investigated in this work is the Teflon® FEP, the same material used in the preparation of the piezoelectrets by the group. Nevertheless, this research can be extended to order polymeric materials.

O desenvolvimento de piezoeletretos, com estruturas de bolhas pré-moldadas, pelo Grupo de Alta Tensão e Materiais (GATM) da Universidade de São Paulo, abriu novas oportunidades para pesquisas relacionadas com o aprisionamento de cargas elétricas, isto por serem as cargas aprisionadas nas superfícies das bolhas as principais responsáveis pelo desempenho dos piezoeletretos. Logo o objetivo deste trabalho é estudar a influência de alguns fatores externos no aprisionamento de cargas na superfície dos polímeros. E para explorar fatores como temperatura e ação de reagentes químicos utilizados na limpeza dos filmes, foi desenvolvido, baseado no método de sensor capacitivo, um dispositivo capaz de realizar medidas sensíveis de cargas superficiais. Outro objetivo foi a implementação de uma metodologia que permita realizar medidas de forma repetitiva e segura. Por ser o material utilizado no preparo dos piezoeletretos do grupo, o principal polímero estudado neste trabalho foi o Teflon® FEP embora o dispositivo desenvolvido permita as medidas de qualquer material polimérico. / The development of new piezoelectrets with bubbles structures by the High- Voltage and Materials Group (GATM) at University of São Paulo, create new opportunities to investigate external parameters that can affect the charge storage in polymer surfaces, since the efficiency of this piezoelectrets depends on the density of charges trapped on the internal surface of the bubbles. Now the aim of this work is to study the influence of a few external factors on the charges trapped over the polymer surface. To explore factors like temperature, chemical reaction due the sample cleaning, a sensitive charge measurement device based on the capacitor probe method is going to be implemented together with a methodology that allow reproducibility of the measurements. The polymer that is going to be investigated in this work is the Teflon® FEP, the same material used in the preparation of the piezoelectrets by the group. Nevertheless, this research can be extended to order polymeric materials.

The presented master´s thesis deals with lead-acid batteries and methods of their charging. First part shortly describes the problems of lead-acid batteries. There are introduced common principles, type of construction and requirements, that should be complied with lead-acid batteries. Following part discusses the basic characteristics of charging. There is given a detailed description of current pulse charging method, on which is also mainly focused this master´s thesis. For this charging method, several basic experiments were done in order to verify functionality of the measuring device, software, the tested cells and primarily to verify charging modes. The goal of this thesis is to find out suitable mode of pulse charging, which would be fast as well as tested cells-friendly. The conclusion of this master´s thesis contains a resume of acquired theoretical knowledge and an evaluation of measured results, on which was the appropriate charging mode proposed.