Quinone-Pyrrole Dyad Based Polymers for Organic Batteries From Design to Application

Abstract: Organic electrode materials are finding increasing use in energy storage devices due to their attractive properties that allow building of flexible and low weight devices in an environmentally friendlier manner than traditional alternatives. Among these organic electrode materials, conducting redox polymers (CRPs), consisting of conducing polymer (CP) with covalently attached redox active pendant groups (PG), have attracted our interests. This is due to the advantageous synergy between CP and PG, e.g. electronic conductivity, high stability and large charge storage capacity. In this thesis polypyrrole has been selected as CP and quinones as PGs. A series of quinone-pyrrole dyad polymers has been synthesized with a variety of quinone substituents, demonstrating the adjustability of quinone formal potentials by choice of substituents. Importantly, in this series we show that the CP-PG redox match, i.e. that the formal potential of the PG is within the conducting region of the CP, is a requirement for fast charge transfer from the electrode to the PGs. Moreover, a series of quinone-pyrrole dyad polymers with various linkers was synthesized, showing that the choice of linker has a pronounced impact on the interactions between the PG and CP. In addition, the temperature dependence of conductance during doping of the polymers reveals the charge transport mechanism. To summarize, the adjustability of the quinone formal potential as well as the fast charge transport in the bulk material ensures the applicability of the CRPs as electrode materials in organic batteries.