Insoluble Benzoquinone Derivative Cathode with Rigid Ring for Organic Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery

Organic electrode materials of rechargeable batteries have attracted a great interest because of their containing of renewable C, H and O elements, but meanwhile face the challenge of high solubility in organic electrolyte. We here report an organic electrode of tetra-(phthalimido)-benzoquinone (TPB) through introducing the rigid groups into benzoquinone molecular skeleton which showed insoluble character in aprotic electrolyte, revealing a high capacity retention of 91.4% (204 mA h g-1) over 100 cycles at 0.2 C. The extended conjugated structure also contributes to enhancing high-rate perfomance (155 mA h g-1 at 10 C ). Moreover, density functional theory calculations illustrate that favorable synergistic reaction between multiple carbonyls and lithium-ions can also enhance initial Li-ion intercalation potential. Our results demonstrate that grafting rigid groups on molecular skeleton provide new approaches for next-generation organic electrode materials of lithium-ion batteries.