Ligating Quinoidal Compounds for Battery Electrodes

Battery technology in its present state, cannot support the complete removal of fossil fuels as an energy source. Current technologies use several elements and materials that are scarce in nature and/or restricted to certain regions in the world leading to economic and environmental concerns. Therefore, new technologies and chemistries must be developed based on materials and elements that are easily accessible and abundant. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) made of commonly available metals, such as iron, may be one solution to this problem. However, materials that can store electrical energy composed of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and phosphorous should also be considered. These so-called organic systems offer the advantage of tunability. This means that they can be designed with a greater foresight towards recyclability or biodegradability which is also an important consideration when considering how batteries are to be handled at the end of their life. However, when one considers the examples presented in the literature, issues regarding low energy densities and solubility are prevalent. Therefore, these issues need to be addressed to make this class of materials viable for practical energy storage technology. This project intends to exploit the advantages of both organic- and MOF-materials to overcome the hurdles listed above and to uncover the structure-property relationships necessary to understand whether these materials can be suitable next- generation chemistries for energy storage. The project will involve a combination of synthesis (making the necessary materials), characterization (both in terms of their chemical and energy-storage properties), and computational modelling. In this manner, experimental work will be supported by theory to illuminate future research directions and to identify the material properties that are crucial for expanding this rapidly growing field. Several promising molecules have already been identified, and therefore this project aims to innovate in this direction. By identifying which motifs and functionalities lead to promising performance, new compounds can be designed to strive towards a battery electrode that delivers not only sustainability, but performance too.