An apparatus for manufacturing a lithium-ion secondary cell negative-electrode carbon material by heat-treating carbon particles while causing the carbon particles to flow within a heat-treatment furnace, the apparatus having a heat-treatment furnace provided with a carbon-particle supply opening for supplying the carbon particles into the interior, and a negative-electrode carbon material recovery opening for taking out the negative-electrode carbon material from the interior and a cooling tank connected in an airtight manner to the negative-electrode carbon material recovery opening of the heat-treatment furnace, and provided with a cooling means.

An electrochemical device includes a positive electrode containing a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode containing a negative electrode active material, and an electrolytic solution. The positive electrode active material contains a conductive polymer, and the electrolytic solution contains anions with which the conductive polymer is doped and dedoped. In the discharged state, the concentration of the anions in the electrolytic solution is in the range from 1.1 mol/L to 1.6 mol/L, inclusive.

An electricity storage device includes a negative electrode having a layered structure that includes an organic backbone layer containing an aromatic compound having an aromatic ring structure, the aromatic compound being in the form of dicarboxylate anions, and an alkali metal element layer containing an alkali metal element coordinated with oxygen in the dicarboxylate anions to form a backbone, a positive electrode that provides electric double-layer capacity, and a nonaqueous electrolyte solution provided between the negative electrode and the positive electrode, the nonaqueous electrolyte solution containing an alkali metal salt. The layered structure may be provided in layers by a π-electron interaction of the aromatic compound and may have a monoclinic crystal structure belonging to the space group P2.sub.1/c. The positive electrode may contain activated carbon having a specific surface area of 1,000 m.sup.2/g or more.

A rechargeable lithium battery includes an electrode laminate including a positive electrode including a positive current collector and a positive active material layer disposed on the positive current collector; a negative electrode including a negative current collector, a negative active material layer disposed on the negative current collector, and a negative electrode functional layer disposed on the negative active material layer; and a separator, wherein the electrode laminate has a ratio (L/W) of a height (L), which is a length in a protruding direction of an electrode terminal, relative to a width (W), which is perpendicular to the protruding direction of the electrode terminal and parallel to the laminate surface, is about 1.1 to about 2.3, the positive active material layer includes a first positive active material including at least one of a composite oxide of a metal selected from cobalt, manganese, nickel, and a combination thereof and lithium and a second positive active material including a compound represented by Chemical Formula 1, the negative electrode functional layer includes flake-shaped polyethylene particles, and an operation voltage is greater than or equal to about 4.3 V.
Li.sub.aFe.sub.1-x1M.sub.x1PO.sub.4  [Chemical Formula 1] In Chemical Formula 1, 0.90≤a≤1.8, 0≤x1≤0.7, and M is Mn, Co, Ni, or a combination thereof.

A rechargeable lithium battery includes a positive electrode including a positive current collector and a positive active material layer disposed on the positive current collector; and a negative electrode including a negative current collector, a negative active material layer disposed on the negative current collector, and a negative electrode functional layer disposed on the negative active material layer, wherein the positive active material layer includes a first positive active material including at least one of a composite oxide of metal selected from cobalt, manganese, nickel, and a combination thereof and lithium and a second positive active material including at least one of compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1 to Chemical Formula 4, and the negative electrode functional layer includes flake-shaped polyethylene particles and
Li.sub.x2Mn.sub.1-y2M′.sub.y2A.sub.2  [Chemical Formula 1]
Li.sub.x2Mn.sub.1-y2M′.sub.yO.sub.2-z2X.sub.z2  [Chemical Formula 2]
Li.sub.x2Mn.sub.2O.sub.4-z2X.sub.z2  [Chemical Formula 3]
Li.sub.x2Mn.sub.2-y2M′.sub.y2M″.sub.z2A.sub.4  [Chemical Formula 4] wherein, 0.9≤x2≤1.1, 0≤y2≤0.5, 0≤z2≤0.5, M′ and M″ are the same or different and are selected from Mg, Al, Co, K, Na, Ca, Si, Ti, Sn, V, Ge, Ga, B, As, Zr, Mn, Cr, Fe, Sr, V, and a rare earth element, and wherein A is selected from O, F, S, and P and X is selected from F, S, and P.

Disclosed is an electrode active material that has a large charge discharge capacity, a high initial efficiency, as well as excellent cycle characteristics and rate characteristics and is favorably used in a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery. An organo sulfur-based electrode active material contains sodium and potassium in a total amount of 100 ppm by mass to 1000 ppm by mass; an electrode for use in a secondary battery, the electrode containing the organo sulfur-based electrode active material as an electrode active material; and a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery including the electrode. Preferably, the organo sulfur-based electrode active material further contains iron in an amount of 1 ppm by mass to 20 ppm by mass. Preferably, the organo sulfur-based electrode active material is sulfur-modified polyacrylonitrile, and the amount of sulfur in the organo sulfur-based electrode active material is 25 mass % to 60 mass %.

The present invention relates to an energy storage device comprising a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and an aqueous polymer electrolyte disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. At least one of the electrodes is an organic electrode. The aqueous polymer electrolyte comprises a metal ion component comprising a metal cation being Na.sup.+ or K.sup.+; a polymer or copolymer comprising at least one monomer unit being a carboxylic acid. At least 20 mol-% of a total amount of monomers in the polymer is monomers comprising carboxylic acid.

An iterative approach to dynamic covalent polymerizations of elemental sulfur with functional comonomers to prepare sulfur prepolymers that can further react with other conventional, commercially available comonomers to prepare a wider class of functional sulfur polymers. This iterative method improves handling, miscibility and solubility of the elemental sulfur, and further enables tuning of the sulfur polymer composition. The sulfur polymers may be a thermoplastic or a thermoset for use in elastomers, resins, lubricants, coatings, antioxidants, cathode materials for electrochemical cells, and polymeric articles such as polymeric films and free-standing substrates.

A process can be used to produce a charge storage unit, especially a secondary battery, the electrodes of which contain an organic redox-active polymer, and which includes a polymeric solid electrolyte. The solid electrolyte is obtained by polymerizing from mixtures of acrylates with methacrylates in the presence of at least one ionic liquid, which imparts advantageous properties to the charge storage unit.

There is provided a composite comprising a) a short chain sulfur; and b) a carbon-supported conductive polymer such as polyacrylonitrile, wherein sulfur atoms of said short chain sulfur are covalently linked to the conductive polymer of said carbon-supported conductive polymer via a C—S bond. A method of preparing said composite comprising polymerizing a plurality of monomers in the presence of a carbon scaffold, mixing elemental sulfur and heating the mixture to obtain said composite is also disclosed. An electrochemical cell comprising said composite as cathode, a sodium anode and a liquid electrolyte such as sodium trifluoromethanesulfonate dissolved in a mixture of solvents is disclosed.