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

聚合物电池有潜力填补低价和可打印的储能设备的空白。这些电池可以为印刷芯片上的低电压组件供电，例如有源RFID标签。对于许多应用，印刷电子产品要求是可生物降解的，理想情况下是可堆肥的。然而，富电子分子的生物降解通常是通过氧化实现的，这一过程对这些设备中的能量存储也是必不可少的。此外，电解液通常含有对环境有害的盐和溶剂。在这里，我们探索了完全可生物降解的聚合物电池电极与深度共熔溶剂(DES)作为电解液的组合。我们将重点介绍五烯四酮作为高电荷密度氧化还原活性聚合物的单体，以及具有适合五烯四酮的氧化还原电势窗口的DES。可生物降解的共聚单体将允许聚合物的裂解，从而使五烯四酮单元能够被细菌分解。因此，我们将获得稳定的、高性能的可生物降解的聚合物电池。我们的新型氧化还原材料与DES相结合，在性能上具有与目前最先进的电化学储能材料相竞争的潜力。

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.