自由基聚合物——一类新颖的高性能二次电池材料

Radical Polymer——A New Class of High Performance Electrode Materials for Rechargeable Batteries

自由基聚合物是一种新近发展迅速的电荷储存与传输材料,在电化学超级电容器、光电转换器件、二次电池等方面具有诱人的应用前景。本文着重介绍这类新颖电极材料的结构特征、电化学反应机制,以及国内外的研究发展现状;分析了采用自由基聚合物构建新型二次电池的技术途径和发展趋势。

Radical polymers are aliphatic or nonconjugated polymers bearing organic redox radicals as pendant groups on their structural unit. These radical sites populated in large densities allow the electrochemical redox reaction taking place through the polymer layer by redox gradient-driven electron transport and behave as electroactive centers. Since radical polymer can be designed with a large population of redox radicals and electron exchange between the radical sites are usually very fast, they are considered as a new class of charge storage and transport materials with the possibility to provide high electrical storage capacity and high charge-discharge rate capability. Particularly, these polymers are completely organic with the advantage of being fully substainable, they are ideal for the displacement of inorganic materials in diverse applications such as electrochemical supercapacitors, photovohaic cells and rechargeable batteries. This paper is intended to review the structural characteristics, electrochemical reaction mechanisms and current development status of the radical polymers as electode-active materials, with focus on the technological challenges and ongoing research strategies of these novel electrode materials as used for construction of high capacity and high rate rechargeable batteries. Also, the problems in the development of radical polymer electrodes are discussed.