Electrochemical reaction of doped polyacetylene with acetonitrile electrolytic solution

In order to develop a high power battery, a cell using polyacetylene, (CH) x, for both positive and negative electrodes and a (C₂H₅)₄NBF₄/acetonitrile (AN) solution as an electrolytic solution, has been tested. Chemical behavior of the (CH)x electrodes during charge-discharge cycling was studied. Coulombic efficiencies of the charge-discharge cycles, on which 4 mol% of the dopant per one CH unit of (CH)x were doped and undoped, were higher than 90 % until the sixtieth cycle, after which they decreased. The results of elemental analyses showed that the amounts of H and N increased on the negative and positive electrodes, respectively. Experiments using deuterated AN (CD₃CN) revealed that the (CH)x of the negative electrode reacted with AN electrochemically in a side reaction.