Electrode Kinetics of Organodisulfide Cathodes for Storage Batteries

The electrode kinetics of a diverse group of organodisulfide cathode materials have been systematically investigated. The electrochemical behavior of these redox couples was studied as a function of the organic moiety (R) in the organodisulfide compounds (RSSR). These studies were performed with a variety of working electrodes, including platinum, glassy carbon, graphite, stainless steel, aluminum, and copper. The possible reaction pathways and mechanisms have been hypothetically postulated, theoretically analyzed, and experimentally verified. Observations showed that while electron transfer rate constants varied with organic moiety, the mechanistic details of the redox path were invariant with the R groups of the organodisulfides studied. The reaction mechanism, as determined from experimental observations, can be expressed as