Organic matter based battery materials have attracted large interest due to their inherent ability to provide an environmentally benign alternative to inorganic batteries because such materials can be produced from renewable resources via eco-efficient processes. Conducting redox polymers (CRPs) is an attractive class of materials for organic matter based electrical energy storage. CRPs are composed of a conducting polymer backbone with redox active pendant groups covalently linked to the polymer backbone. The conducting polymer backbone renders the material conductive and, due to the large molecular size, prevents material dissolution thus mastering two of the most significant obstacles in achieving powerful and stable battery materials from organic compounds. The pendant redox group, on the other hand, can provide high charge storage capacities to the material. Combining conducting polymers with high charge storage capacity pendants thus has the possibility to form powerful materials for battery applications provided that the individual properties of the backbone and the redox group can be preserved and operate in synergy in the CRP. This requires careful matching of the redox chemistry of the pendant group and the CP backbone as CPs are only conducting in specific potential regions. In this work design principles for CRPs are outlined and we present results suggesting that CRPs can show semi-metallic electron transport properties and that redox conversion rates on the sub-second time-scale can be accomplished with this type of materials [1]. In addition we present an all-organic proton battery composed of quinone CRPs as both anode and cathode [2].

[1] M. Sterby, et al., Electrochim. Acta, 2017, 235, 356-364

[2] R. Emanuelsson, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139 (13), 4828-4834.