Polymers with Tailored Electronic Structure for High Capacity Lithium Battery Electrodes

A conductive polymer is developed for solving the long-standing volume change issue in lithium battery electrodes. Here, a combination of synthesis, spectroscopy and simulation techniques tailors the electronic structure of the polymer to enable in situ lithium doping. Composite anodes based on this polymer and commercial Si particles exhibit 2100 mAh g^-1 in Si after 650 cycles without any conductive additive.