Bioinspired Catechol‐Grafting PEDOT Cathode for an All‐Polymer Aqueous Proton Battery with High Voltage and Outstanding Rate Capacity

• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202103896
• Publication Date: 2021-12-16T19:39:37Z
• Authors: Meihua Zhu; Li Zhao; Qing Ran; Yingchao Zhang; Runchang Peng; Geyu Lu; Xiaoteng Jia; Danming Chao; Caiyun Wang
• Keywords: Electrochemical kinetics

Aqueous all-polymer proton batteries (APPBs) consisting of redox-active polymer electrodes are considered safe and clean renewable energy storage sources. However, there remain formidable challenges for APPBs to withstand a high current rate while maximizing cell output voltage within narrow electrochemical window aqueous electrolytes. Here, capacitive-type cathode material is designed by grafting poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) with bioinspired catechol pendants, which delivers redox potential (0.60 V vs Ag/AgCl) remarkable capability. The pseudocapacitive-dominated mechanism illustrated the density functional theory (DFT) calculation kinetics analysis favorable delivering fast charge/discharge rates. Coupled diffusion-type anthraquinone-based anode, APPB offers 0.72 V, outstanding capability (64.8% capacity retention from 0.5 25 A g-1 ), cycling stability (80% over 1000 cycles at 2 superior state-of-the-art all-organic batteries. This strategy insight provided DFT ex situ characterizations offer new perspective on delicate design electrode patterns high-performance APPBs.