Intramolecular hydrogen bond improved durability and kinetics for zinc-organic batteries

• Main Authors: Sun, Tianjiang, Pan, Jun, Zhang, Weijia, Jiang, Xiaodi, Cheng, Min, Zha, Zhengtai, Fan, Hong Jin, Tao, Zhanliang
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Science::Physics; Intramolecular Hydrogen Bond; Reduced Solubility
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/172980
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Organic compounds have the advantages of green sustainability and high designability, but their high solubility leads to poor durability of zinc-organic batteries. Herein, a high-performance quinone-based polymer (H-PNADBQ) material is designed by introducing an intramolecular hydrogen bonding (HB) strategy. The intramolecular HB (C=O⋯N-H) is formed in the reaction of 1,4-benzoquinone and 1,5-naphthalene diamine, which efficiently reduces the H-PNADBQ solubility and enhances its charge transfer in theory. In situ ultraviolet-visible analysis further reveals the insolubility of H-PNADBQ during the electrochemical cycles, enabling high durability at different current densities. Specifically, the H-PNADBQ electrode with high loading (10 mg cm-2) performs a long cycling life at 125 mA g-1 (> 290 cycles). The H-PNADBQ also shows high rate capability (137.1 mAh g-1 at 25 A g-1) due to significantly improved kinetics inducted by intramolecular HB. This work provides an efficient approach toward insoluble organic electrode materials.