Regulating the radical intermediates by conjugated units in covalent organic frameworks for optimized lithium ion storage

Organic active units often transform into radical intermediates during the redox processes but exhibit poor cycling stability due to the uncontrollable redox of the radicals. Herein, we report a facile and efficient strategy to modulate the molecular orbital energies, charge transport capacities, and spin electron densities of the active units in covalent organic frameworks (COFs) via regulating the conjugated unit size to optimize the redox activity and stability of the organic radicals. COFs based on different imide conjugated units exhibit tunable discharge voltages, rate performance and cycling stabilities. Detailed characterizations and theoretical calculation reveal that imide radicals are the important active intermediates during the redox processes of these COFs. Specifically, increasing the size of the imide conjugated units could effectively delocalize the radical electrons and improve the stability of the COFs electrodes. This study offers a very effective strategy to modulate the redox chemistry of organic materials for electrochemical energy storage.