Potential-tuning in quinone-pyrrole dyad-based conducting redox polymers

In this study, conducting redox polymers (CRPs), which consist of a polypyrrole conducting polymer backbone with attached quinone pendant groups, have been explored as electrode materials for organic batteries. A modular organic synthetic approach is presented that allows the assembly of pyrrole and quinone units into quinone-pyrrole dyads and modifying the dyads by varying the substitution pattern on the quinone moiety. These dyad monomers were copolymerized electrochemically with pyrrole to yield the CRPs with quinone formal potentials varying within a 0.6 V range. With access to CRP materials with tunable quinone formal potentials an all-organic water-based battery was constructed by choosing CRPs with different quinone potentials as anode and cathode material. Galvanostatic charge-discharge of the cell showed that the cell potentials coincided well with the difference in redox potential between the quinone substituents used in the anode and cathode CRP.