This paper reports a novel acid single flow Cd-PbO2 battery, in which the electrodeposited cadmium is employed as negative electrode, lead dioxide as positive electrode and a new type intermixture of H2SO4-CdSO4 with DPE-3 as electrolyte to reduce the self-discharge and inhibit the formation of dendrites on Cd electrode during electrochemical deposition. The influences of electrolyte composition and current density on battery performance were studied by orthogonal experiment. The experimental results show that the surface morphology of the deposited cadmium is smooth and rare cadmium dendrite forms on the copper substrate in the electrolyte of 2 M sulfuric acid, 1 M cadmium sulfate and 0.6 g L-1 DPE-3 additive at current density of 10-20 mA cm(-2). The optimal orthogonal experiment result shows that the coulombic efficiency of electrodeposited cadmium is 98.6%. The acid single flow battery is designed with a rated capacity of 5000 mAh and it can offer a discharge voltage of 2.06 V, a coulombic efficiency of 98.1% and an energy efficiency of 90.3% at 20 mA cm(-2) (0.4 C). (C) 2013 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.