NEC Corporation announced today the successful enhancement of its high powered Organic Radical Battery (ORB) (*1),

which has demonstrated a capability of more than 10,000 consecutive pulse-discharges. NEC's research and development on ORB, a thin and flexible battery that uses a form of plastic called organic radical material (*2), has decreased the ORB's internal resistance by improving uniformity of the composite electrode's nanostructure, which consists of organic radical material and carbon fibers. The homogeneous composite

electrode was fabricated by using the homogeneous dispersion technique for ink and specialized printing techniques. The power density of the battery was increased to 5kW/L, which is three times greater than previous ORB (*3). Moreover, the stability of high-power pulse discharges has been improved through modification of the polymer structure, which was done to enhance the compatibility of the radical material with the organic electrolyte. As a result, a stable cycle of over 10,000 consecutive pulse-discharges was achieved. This improvement in battery performance enables a flexible, coin size, rechargeable ORB of less than 1 mm in thickness to produce an average of 10,000 consecutive pulse-discharges at a 100 mA level, and a maximum capability of 1 A or 2 W. As a result, it is anticipated that future applications of the battery may include its use as an energy source for devices requiring high power, such as LED flash lights, and a large range of space-saving equipment. NEC aims to continue enhancing the performance of ORBs by improving energy density and reliability, in addition to power output. NEC will also continue carrying out aggressive R&D in order to enhance the usability of ORBs featuring new combinations of technologies, such as noncontact rechargeable technologies, for using ORBs in high performance next generation devices that include smart cards, electric paper and wearable terminals. Research and development was partially carried out by the "Basic Technology Development for Fiber Materials Having Advanced Functions / Development of Battery Components to Enhance Performance and Functionality" project, sponsored by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI), as well as the R&D for Industrial Science and Technology Frontier Program, supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Organic radical polymer assumes an electrolyte-permeated gel state, and is the reason why the rechargeable battery is so remarkably flexible and pliant. In addition, the organic radical polymer electrode reaction is extremely fast and the supporting salts migrate through gel state polymer very smoothly. This results in little resistance to the charging reaction and an incredibly fast charging time of less than 30 seconds. Not only is this new battery thin, flexible and rechargeable, but it is also environmentally friendly as unlike conventional rechargeable batteries, it does not contain any harmful heavy metals such as mercury, lead or cadmium.

Key features of the newly developed battery include: (1) An exceedingly thin structure (300 microns), which will enable it to be embedded into objects such as smartcards and intelligent paper in the future. (2) A pliant and bendable structure, as flexible plastic is used as the cathode material. (3) An ultra-fast charging speed of less than 30 seconds. (4) A high energy density of approximately 1 mWh (mili Watt hour) per cm squared. This means, for example, that if the ORB was used in an active RFID device, it would support up to approximately several tens of thousands of signal transmissions on a single charge. (5) Environmentally friendly, it does not contain any harmful metals. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx We propose a novel concept in charge transport and storage phenomena that represents a breakthrough in functional polymers for electrical conduction and energy storage applications. Among other achievements, we have succeeded in fabricating remarkable rechargeable batteries composed solely of organic polymers, characterized by very high density, power-rate capabilities, and cycling performance of electrical energy storage. We have focused on aliphatic or nonconjugated polymers bearing organic robust radicals as pendant groups per repeating unit. The so-called radical polymers are characterized by an ultimate population of unpaired electrons or singly occupied molecular orbitals, which allow efficient redox gradient-driven electron transport through the polymer layer through self-exchange reactions. Radical polymers are emerging as a new class of electroactive materials useful for various kinds of wettype energy storage, transport, and conversion devices. Electric field-driven charge transport is another remarkable aspect of the radical polymers in the solid state with potential applications as organic memory, diodes, and switches. The excellent filmforming properties of organic radical polymers that enables simple wet processes allow convenient fabrication of electrodes, such as homogeneous layers of precisely controlled thicknesses and ordered structures. Here, we take a radical battery as a typical example (see the Figure). A pair of two radical polymers with different redox potentials, are used as electrodeactive materials in this organic radical battery. The charging process corresponds to oxidation of the radical at the cathode and reduction of the radical at the anode. The electromotive force is close to the potential gap between the two redox potentials, which typically amounts to 1 2 V. The amorphous radical polymers allow

fabrication of flexible, paper-like, thin-film devices. A curious feature is the capacity to form see-through batteries, due to the absence of significant chromophores in the radical polymer. Organic and Li-ion free radical batteries offer several advantages over conventional batteries, including higher safety, adaptability to wet fabrication processes, easy disposability (since they burn without toxic gas and ash formation), and capacity for fabrication from less-limited resources. We are currently seeking to overcome the lower volumetric energy densities of organic batteries to allow their use in a wide range of electronic equipments.