A New Electrode-Active Material for Polymer Batteries

The electrochemical haracteristics of polyvinylferrocene (PVF) was investigated for use as an electrode-active mate-rial in rechargeable batteries. Charge-discharge curves of the PVF electrodes showed excellent potential flatness and very high coulombic efficiencies in both nonaqueous and aqueous olutions. The dispersion of graphite powder in PVF was very useful for increasing the discharge rate and PVF utilization. The self-discharge rates were found to be as low as 1 % in the first day. It is concluded that PVF is a promising material as an electrode-active material in rechargeable batteries. Recently, conduct ing ~-conjugated polymers uch as polyacetylene and poly-p-phenylene have been of increasing interest as electrode-active materials in rechargeable l ight weight batteries (1, 2). One of the striking features of these conducting polymers is the ca-pabil ity of film formation, in addit ion to the relatively high conduct iv i ty in their charged forms, These poly-mers seem to have several disadvantages, however, e.g., poor coulombic efficiency, low util ization, low dopin