The present disclosure describes a series of improvements to the positive active material and negative active material of electrochemical cells. In particular, the present disclosure describes improvements in the lead oxide powder, processing, and additives used to make the positive active material and negative active material for pastes used to make electrodes for lead acid batteries. The present disclosure describes materials and processing that enable the formation of positive active materials having density comparable to conventional material but with substantially higher porosity and improved mechanical properties and the formation of negative active materials using substantially shorter and less energy intensive processing.