Trilithium salt of tetrahydroxyanthraquinone: A high-voltage and stable organic cathode material for rechargeable lithium metal and lithium-ion batteries

Organic cathode materials (OCMs) have drawn considerable attention for lithium batteries but suffer from unfavorable dissolution problem and thus inferior cycling performance. Salification is a simple approach to restrain the dissolution but most reported lithium-salt-type OCMs are still unable to achieve good cycling stability due to poorly conjugated and/or asymmetric structure. Herein, we report a novel air-stable, largely conjugated, and symmetric organic lithium salt synthesized from 1,4,5,8-tetrahydroxyanthraquinone (THAQ), namely Li3THAQ. It possesses a layered crystalline structure with large interlayer spacings, which is relatively stable in the reversible conversion between Li4THAQ and Li2THAQ. Benefiting from this, Li3THAQ exhibits exceptional electrochemical performance within 2.0–3.6 V, including high reversible capacity (192 mAh g−1), high discharge potential (2.93 V vs. Li+/Li), high rate capability (75 % capacity retention at 5000 mAh g−1 vs. 50 mAh g−1), and high cycling stability (95 % capacity retention after 500 cycles). Additionally, it can be also matched with natural graphite anode to construct a Li-ion full-cell, which was rarely reported for OCMs. In brief, Li3THAQ shows great advantages in structure stability, electrochemical performance, and practicability compared to its counterparts, and the in-depth mechanism understanding provides important insights into the development of lithium-salt-type OCMs.