Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Yoshiko Sato

Tadashi Sotomura

Kenichi Takeyama

Hiroshi Uemachi

Teruhisa Kanbara

Noboru Oyama

Katsuhiko Naoi

A reversible electrode is provided comprising mainly organic disulfide compounds and having applications in such electrochemical devices as batteries, electrochromic displays, sensors, memories, etc. Large current charge/discharge is realized at room temperature with charge/discharge characteristics of excellent reversibility. Its structure is a composition combining organic disulfide compounds with disulfide bonding and conducting polymers. In other words, conducting polymers after being subjected to an electrolysis are put together with organic disulfide compounds. Thus, due to the effect of composition with conducting polymers, the oxidation/reduction reactions of organic disulfide compounds are accelerated and a reversible electrode characterized by utilization of a high energy density of organic disulfide compounds and the possibility of a large current charge/discharge is realized.

Composite electrode

A reversible electrode of the present invention includes, as a main component thereof, a thiourea compound represented by the following formula (I): ##STR1## (where R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, and R.sup.4 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, a hydroxyl group, a cyano group, a carboxyl group, an amino group, an aryl group, an allyl group, an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, a group containing a mercapto group, a group containing a phenyl group, a group having a hetero ring containing O, and a group having a hetero ring containing N) or a polymer having the thiourea compound as its main polymer unit; the reversible electrode utilizing reversible electrochemical oxidation-reduction of sulfur atoms of the thiourea compound or the polymer.

Reversible electrode

A reversible electrode of the present invention is provided, which includes an organic sulfur aromatic compound represented by the formula R(SX).sub.y (where R is an aromatic group, S is sulfur, X is a metal atom or hydrogen, and y is an integer of 2 or more) as a component so as to utilize the reversible electrochemical oxidation-reduction of sulfur atoms of the organic sulfur aromatic compound for an electrode reaction. Moreover, according to the present invention, a method for producing the reversible electrode is provided.

The present invention provides an electrode material comprising a combination of a compound having a disulfide group and a conductive polymer, or a conductive polymer having a disulfide group, wherein an S-S bond of the disulfide group is cleaved by the electrolytic reduction to form a sulfur-metal ion bond or a sulfur-proton bond, and the sulfur-metal ion bond or the sulfur-proton bond re-forms an S-S bond by the electrolytic oxidation. The present invention also provides a lithium rechargeable battery comprising a cathode, a solid electrolyte, and an anode, wherein the cathode is made of a composition containing as its main components lithium thiolate having a sulfur-lithium ion bond capable of forming a disulfide bond by the electrolytic oxidation and a .pi. electron conjugated conductive polymer; or a composition containing as its main component a .pi. electron conjugated conductive polymer having a sulfur-lithium ion bond capable of forming a disulfide bond by electrolytic oxidation; the solid electrolyte is a composition containing a salt containing lithium, or a polymer containing the salt; and the anode is made of a composition containing as its main components aluminium or an alloy containing aluminium, and carbon.

Reversible electrode material

A method of manufacturing a solid polymer electrolyte which comprises polymerizing an ester polymethoxyoxyalkylene, a diester polyoxyalkylene, an oxycompound having a double bond, and an inorganic salt, and the solid polymer electrolyte thus obtained. The electrolyte is suitable for application in electrochemical devices such as primary or secondary battery, condenser or electrochromic display.

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Neyagawa, Japan

Yoshiko Sato