传统铅酸电池主要应用于汽车及各种内燃机的起动和无线通信基站，但其在部分荷电态下负极易硫酸盐化而失效，降低了电池的受充能力及循环寿命. 铅炭电池是将高比表面、高导电的炭材料掺入铅负极的新型铅酸电池，具有优异的高倍率充放电性能及较高的部分荷电态下的循环寿命，在储能与混合动力车方面有很好的应用前景. 近年来国内外竞相开展了炭材料作用机制的研究，本文从构建导电网络、增加双电层电容储能、改善孔洞结构以及提高电化学反应动力等方面对炭材料在铅炭电池上的作用机制进行阐述，并结合作者课题组在铅炭电池领域的研发工作进行展望. ; The traditional lead-acid batteries are mainly used for automobile and various internal combustion engine starting, wireless communication base stations and renewable energy storage; however, their negative plates are easily sulfated under partial-state-of-charge duty, then their charging capacity and cycle life are greatly reduced. Lead-carbon battery is a new type of lead-acid battery, in which a carbon material with high specific surface area and conductivity is added into a negative plate, and has excellent rate discharge performance and higher PSoC cycle life. Lead-carbon battery has a good application prospect in energy storage and hybrid electric vehicle, so these years the study of the mechanism of carbon materials in lead-carbon battery becomes a hot research topic. This paper reviewed the recent progresses in research on the mechanisms of carbon materials in lead-carbon batteries, mainly focused on the construction of conductive network, double-layer capacitance storage, improvement of pore structure, increase of electrochemical reaction dynamics and other aspects, as well as the research work of our group in Pb-C batteries. ; 国家电网公司科技项目（No. DG71-13-001）与北京市科技新星计划项目（No. Z131109000413060）资助 ; 作者联系地址：1. 北京科技大学，北京 100083；2. 防化研究院，北京 100191；3. 中国电力科学研究院，北京 100192 ; Author's Address: 1. University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China; 2. Reserarch Institute of Chemical Defense, Beijing 100191, China; 3. China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China ; 通讯作者E-mail：dr.h.zhang@hotmail.com