Effect of Structure of Polymeric Nickel Complexes with Salen-Type Ligands on the Rate of Their Electroactivity Decay in Solutions of Water-Containing Electrolytes

The influence of the structure of diimine bridge in the Schiff’s bases (derivatives of N,N'-ethylenebissalicylimine) on the rate of the loss of electroactivity of their complexes with nickel in acetonitrile containing 0.1 M of tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (anhydrous and upon addition of 1 wt % of water) has been studied. It has been shown that the presence of bulky yet light methyl groups in the structure of diimine bridge significantly reduced the loss of electroactivity (37% of the initial capacity retained after 50 cycles) as compared to the ligand containing no substituents and containing phenyl group as the substituent (17 and 20%, respectively, of initial capacity retained after 50 cycles).