Abstract
The need for expanded energy storage motivates material development for scalable aqueous secondary batteries. The combination of transition metals with redox-active organics represents a new approach to functional material design. Here, we detail the synthesis of titanium(IV) 1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone (Ti(1,8-DHAQ)2) as a novel redox-active material and demonstrate its use as a negative electrode in an aqueous battery. This one-pot synthesis results in amorphous micron-scale particles with titanium binding directly to the carbonyl feature as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. When assembled in a coin cell with a lithium manganese oxide positive electrode, the active material can be electrochemically cycled with a charge density of 40 mAh/g at 1.1 V. This represents a new method of creating simple and scalable electrodes using metal-organic materials for versatile energy storage applications.
Highlights
The rising use of variable-output renewable energy in the form of solar and wind power has increased the demand for large- and medium-scale electrical energy storage [1,2]
Zinc-manganese dioxide primary batteries are manufactured on a global scale [17], and secondary batteries based on similar chemistries show incredible promise for intermediate-scale applications due to the highly scalable positive electrode which can be designed for high cycle life and stability [18,19,20,21]
The one-pot synthesis of these metal-anthraquinone materials was based on studies of magnetic moments in metal-quinone complexes [43,44,45,46,47] and descriptions of the synthesis of titanium-hydroxyanthracene covalent metal-organic networks (CMONs) [48,49,50,51]
Summary
The rising use of variable-output renewable energy in the form of solar and wind power has increased the demand for large- and medium-scale electrical energy storage [1,2]. Lithium-ion batteries are effective for high power and high energy density applications such as small-scale consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and increasingly for short to medium term grid-scale storage [3,4,5,6]. Flow-batteries can provide a compelling engineering framework for grid-scale energy storage [7] Beyond these technologies, there is still significant need for safe and affordable battery technologies designed for the intermediate-scale, 10–100 kWh range, which could provide reliable energy storage for homes and small business. There is still significant need for safe and affordable battery technologies designed for the intermediate-scale, 10–100 kWh range, which could provide reliable energy storage for homes and small business In this space, aqueous batteries are attractive as they are nonflammable and have a low solvent cost. There still, remains a compelling need for innovative negative electrode materials to replace zinc, which forms dendrites [22,23,24] and has been identified as the major contributor to capacity decline in secondary Zn-MnO2 batteries [25]
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