Pentacenetetrone Co-polymers as Sustainable Redox-active Electrodes Tailored Towards Deep Eutectic Solvent Electrolytes in Polymer Batteries

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Timo Jacob; Professor Dr. Alexander Kühne
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers ; Physical Chemistry of Solids and Surfaces, Material Characterisation ; Polymer Materials
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441209207

Polymer batteries have the potential to fill the gap of low-price and printable energy storage devices. These batteries could power low voltage components on printed chips, such as active RFID tags. For many applications, printed electronics are required to be biodegradable and ideally compostable. However, biodegradation of electron-rich molecules is often achieved via oxidation, the process which is also essential for energy storage in these devices. Moreover, the electrolyte often contains environmentally harmful salts and solvents. Here, we explore fully-biodegradable polymer electrodes for batteries in combination with deep eutectic solvents (DES) as electrolytes. We will focus on pentacenetetrone as a monomer for high charge density redox-active polymers, and on DES with a redox potential window well-suited for pentacenetetrone. Biodegradable co-monomers will allow fragmentation of the polymer enabling bacterial decomposition of the pentacenetetrone units. As a result, we will obtain a stable and high-performance polymer battery, which is biodegradable. Our new redox materials in combination with DES bear the potential to compete in performance with current state-of-the-art materials for electrochemical energy storage.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2248: Polymer-based batteries