UNMET NEED
To meet the ever-increasing need in powering electronic devices and vehicles, it is extremely desirable to develop new and sustainable battery technologies possessing improved electrical-storage capabilities. Currently, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have dominant market of portable electronics owing to their high energy density, long cycle life, and other excellent performance characteristics. Due to the limited natural availability of lithium, batteries based on other metals (such as sodium, potassium, etc.) of higher natural abundance and lower costs are also being developed. However, current rechargeable batteries have been built predominantly with inorganic material-based electrodes with limited room for further improvements and limited earth abundance.
In this regards, organic electrode materials reported to date are featured with low reversible capacities (<400 mAh g-1) and limited effective capacities (<300 mAh g-1), which restricts their applications in large-scale energy storage devices. It is still challenging to find satisfactory organic materials meeting the requirements.
