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Evaluation of Cyclooctatetraene‐Based Aliphatic Polymers as Battery Materials: Synthesis, Electrochemical, and Thermal Characterization Supported by DFT Calculations
Author(s) -
Speer Martin E.,
Sterzenbach Christopher,
Esser Birgit
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chempluschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.801
H-Index - 61
ISSN - 2192-6506
DOI - 10.1002/cplu.201700356
Subject(s) - cyclooctatetraene , anode , electrochemistry , polymer , battery (electricity) , redox , polystyrene , materials science , cathode , functional polymers , combinatorial chemistry , organic radical battery , nanotechnology , chemistry , polymer chemistry , electrode , organic chemistry , molecule , copolymer , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
Organic electrode materials for rechargeable batteries are becoming a viable alternative for existing technologies. In particular, redox polymers have shown great performances. While many cathode‐active derivatives are known, the development of their anode‐active counterparts, required for the design of full‐organic batteries, lacks behind. Here we present investigation on the suitability of cyclooctatetraene (COT)‐based aliphatic polymers as anode‐active battery materials, inspired by the known reversible reduction chemistry of COT at low electrochemical potential. We found that both synthesized polystyrene derivatives, side‐group functionalized with COT, showed limited electrochemical reversibility of the reduction processes, whereas reductions proceeded reversibly in model compounds of these polymers. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements and density‐functional theory calculations showed that this incomplete reversibility was due to cross‐linking reactions occurring between COT units in the polymers. For the future of COT‐based redox polymers, we propose a molecular design that prevents these cross‐linking reactions.