Volume contractible triplumbic tetroxide Pb3O4 (Lead Oxide) as a negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries

India ranks as the seventh largest lead producer, producing around 204,000 MT in 2020. This shows that India has a higher level of ample lead availability. In addition, the lead-acid battery market in India was estimated to grow from $4.86B in FY 2020 to $8.57B in FY 2027. Because of their widespread availability and inexpensive price, lead-acid batteries (LAB) have been the go-to for energy storage for over a century. Thus, the quantity of LAB waste also grows. There have been many suggestions for improving the recycling rate of lead-acid waste batteries, which currently stands at around 66 %. Batteries using lithium chemistry have been extensively studied due to their high energy characteristics, which might be used for large-scale energy storage and vehicle electrification, even though lithium-ion batteries are now shaping modern energy storage techniques. The demand for energy storage is on the rise, and electric vehicles are a significant contributor. Improving the cyclability, charging rate, stability, and safety of next-generation Li-ion batteries not to mention their specific energy and volumetric energy density will need significant research and development efforts. In order for them to keep up with the current production demand, this is essential. To meet this demand, we are upgrading from inefficient lead-acid batteries to more contemporary lithium-ion batteries. Future lithium-ion batteries will employ lead alloys and compounds as their anodes because of their high theoretical efficiency, cheap cost, and large working capacity. Consequently, a negative electrode made of lead-based anode Pb₃O₄ was developed in this study with a volume contractible strategy, which helps to reduce the volume expansion. The gravimetric and volumetric specific capacities of the Pb₃O₄ negative electrode, even after 100 cycles, are 369 mAh/g (same as pristine graphite) and 3063 mAh/cc (∼3 times that of the graphite). Therefore, this cheap and highly scalable electrode can be vouched as a potential replacement for graphite in lithium-ion batteries.