Poly(diphenanthrenequinone-substituted norbornene) for long life and efficient lithium battery cathodes

Poly(diphenanthrenequinone-substituted norbornene) (PQN) as a novel class of organic electrode-active material was reported. A Li coin cell composed of the PQN/carbon composite electrode as the cathode exhibited 2.8V and great cycle performance maintaining a capacity higher than 100mAh/g for more than 100 cycles at 60C. Among many types of o-quinonecontaining polymers for Li-ion batteries reported so far, the present research provides the first example of introducing phenanthrenequinone as the pendant group per repeating unit of polymers, which proved to be especially advantageous in terms of robustness and cyclability by virtue of the fused-ring structure to protect the reactive positions of the o-benzoquinone. The functional group tolerance against many types of redox-active groups, which we have established for the initiator and the propagating end of norbornene derivatives, apply for the phenanthrenequinone-substituted monomer, giving rise to a reversible redox activity.