Value-added utilization of lignin-derived aromatic oligomers as renewable charge-storage materials

Abstract

Lignin-derived aromatic oligomers (LDAOs) are the primary components of lignin depolymerization products. They are typically utilized as renewable crosslinking agents or resin materials with a considerably lower application value than aromatic monomers. Notably, LDAOs are rich in quinone groups, which enable storage and release of charges. In this work, the feasibility of LDAOs as renewable charge storage materials was investigated. LDAOs were first reacted with formaldehyde to generate a synthetic polymer (SP-AOF) via a phenol-formaldehyde condensation reaction. SP-AOF was subsequently incorporated with reduced graphene oxide (rGO), namely rGO/SP-AOF. As expected, the hybrid electrode exhibited high specific capacitance (250 F/g), which was approximately three times higher than that of rGO (87 F/g). This was due to the presence of quinone groups in SP-AOF, which could contribute to the overall capacitance with pseudocapacitance. Moreover, the hybrid electrode was able to deliver a high specific capacitance of 210 F/g even at a high specific current of 10 A/g. 1H−13C heteronuclear single quantum coherence nuclear magnetic resonance (2D HSQC NMR) and phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P NMR) analyses revealed that SP-AOF displayed higher quinone content (3.76 mmol/g) than commercially available lignin (organosolv and alkali lignin), which resulted in higher energy storage performance. This study provides a promising strategy for the utilization of aromatic oligomers as raw materials to manufacture high-performance lignin-derived energy storage materials.