Preparation of Poly(arylamino‐quinone) Polymer and Its Electrochemical Properties as a Cathode Material for Lithium Ion Battery

Abstract The exploration of organic materials for electrochemical energy storage has attracted much attention, and our studies focus on quinone‐based polymer that is employed as the electrode materials for lithium‐ion batteries. In this article, two poly(arylamino‐quinone) polymers are prepared by Michael addition polymerization reaction. The constructed poly(arylamino‐quinone) polymers contained the quinone units in arylamine‐linked conjugated skeleton, which possess the branched molecular structure for poly (tris(4‐aminophenyl)amine‐benzoquinone) (PAQ1) and the linear molecular structure for poly (p‐phenylenediamine‐benzoquinone) (PAQ2), respectively. As explored as the organic cathode materials for lithium‐ion batteries, PAQ1 with granular morphology exhibits the discharge capacity of 429.6 mAh. g −1 in the first cycle and the improved average discharge potential. Also, it shows that the stable cycling stability after the capacity attenuation in the initial cycles and the high current rate performances as comparing to PAQ2. It can be ascribed to the introduction of triphenylamine unit in polymer and the assembled granular morphology, which contributes to improved electrochemical performances for PAQ1.