Design Strategies for Promising Organic Positive Electrodes in Lithium-Ion Batteries: Quinones and Carbon Materials

Organic materials have attracted considerable attention as potential positive electrodes in lithium-ion batteries owing to their high densities of active surface sites, which can promote fast redox reactions. Rational design strategies for developing redox-active organic materials, however, have not been established systematically. In this work, recent approaches to rational development of organic positive electrodes are comprehensively reviewed to establish design strategies for organic positive electrodes. Three primary conclusions are highlighted: (i) The ability of pristine organic materials to exhibit excellent cell performance is limited. (ii) Incorporation of appropriate functionalities into organic materials can significantly improve their redox activities. (iii) Uniform dispersion of redox-active inorganic materials in a matrix of conductive carbon materials provides nanostructured organic–inorganic composites with optimized cell performance. The strategies outlined in this review will play a critical role in the design of promising organic positive electrodes with appropriate redox activities for lithium-ion batteries.