Quinone based Conducting Redox Polymers for Renewable Energy Storage

To meet future energy needs and to minimize CO2-emissions, a higher share of produced electricity must come from renewable resources [1]. Unfortunately, the output of renewable energy sources varies and does not always correlate with the temporal demand for electricity. For this reason, high capacity electrical energy storage (EES) is needed to fully utilize renewable energy sources [2]. Today’s battery technologies primarily rely on metals extracted at large economic and environmental costs [3],and the benefits of converting to carbon based materials are several, e.g. lower weight, flexible materials, and better recycling possibilities. In addition, the total energy consumption in the production chain may be reduced if the high temperatures required for extracting and processing metals can be avoided. Conducting redox polymers (CRPs), i.e. conducting polymers with redox active side groups, are currently investigated as possible organic electrode materials [4]. In this work we focus on finding stable side groups with high charge storage capacity. Quinones, which occur in natural energy conversion systems, i.e. during photosynthesis and respiration, are an attractive side group for CRPs due to their high gravimetric capacity. Importantly, for a functioning battery application the redox group and the polymer backbone must be active in the same potential window and this can be tuned effectively over a wide potential range by substitution on the quinone ring; hence various quinone derivatives could match different polymer backbones. A high potential- and high charge capacity quinone derivative has been synthesized and electrochemically characterized with the aim of producing a novel CRP to function as an organic high charge capacity material, targeting renewable organic batteries for a future of sustainable EES. References [1] D. Larcher, J. M. Tarascon,, Nat. Chem. 7 (2015) 19-29. [2] Z. Yang, J. Zhang, M. C. W. Kintner-Meyer, X. Lu, D. Choi, J. P. Lemmon, J. Liu, Chem. Rev. 111 (2011) 3577–3613. [3] P. Poizot, F. Dolhem, Energy Environ. Sci. 4 (2011) 2003-2019. [4] (a) C. Karlsson, H. Huang, M. Stromme, A. Gogoll, M. Sjodin, RSC Adv. 5 (2015) 11309-11316; (b) C. Karlsson, H. Huang, M. Stromme, A. Gogoll, M. Sjodin, Electrochim. Acta 179 (2015) 336-342. [5] L. Åkerlund, R. Emanuelsson, A. Gogoll, M. Strömme, M. Sjödin, To be submitted.Susbat