One of the possible solutions to circumvent the sluggish kinetics, low capacity, and poor integrity of inorganic cathodes commonly used in rechargeable aluminium batteries (RABs) is the use of redox-active polymers as cathodes. They are not only sustainable materials characterised by their structure tunability, but also exhibit a unique ion coordination redox mechanism that makes them versatile ion hosts suitable for voluminous aluminium cation complexes, as demonstrated by the poly(quinoyl) family. Recently, phenazine-based compounds have been found to have high capacity, reversibility and fast redox kinetics in aqueous electrolytes because of the presence of a CN double bond. Here, we present one of the first examples of a phenazine-based hybrid microporous polymer, referred to as IEP-27-SR, utilized as an organic cathode in an aluminium battery with an AlCl3/EMIMCl ionic liquid electrolyte. The preliminary redox and charge storage mechanism of IEP-27-SR was confirmed by ex situ ATR-IR and EDS analyses. The introduction of phenazine active units in a robust microporous framework resulted in a remarkable rate capability (specific capacity of 116 mA h g-1 at 0.5C with 77% capacity retention at 10C) and notable cycling stability, maintaining 75% of its initial capacity after 3440 charge-discharge cycles at 1C (127 days of continuous cycling). This superior performance compared to reported Al//n-type organic cathode RABs is attributed to the stable 3D porous microstructure and the presence of micro/mesoporosity in IEP-27-SR, which facilitates electrolyte permeability and improves kinetics.
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