Rational Molecular Design of Benzoquinone-Derived Cathode Materials for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries

p-Benzoquinone (BQ) is a promising cathode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical specific capacity and voltage. However, it suffers from a serious dissolution problem in organic electrolytes, leading to poor electrochemical performance. Herein, two BQ-derived molecules with a near-plane structure and relative large skeleton: 1,4-bis(p-benzoquinonyl)benzene (BBQB) and 1,3,5-tris(p-benzoquinonyl)benzene (TBQB) are designed and synthesized. They show greatly decreased solubility as a result of strong intermolecular interactions. As cathode materials for LIBs, they exhibit high carbonyl utilizations of 100% with high initial capacities of 367 and 397 mAh g(-1), respectively. Especially, BBQB with better planarity presents remarkably improved cyclability, retaining a high capacity of 306 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles. The cycling stability of BBQB surpasses all reported BQ-derived small molecules and most polymers. This work provides a new molecular structure design strategy to suppress the dissolution of organic electrode materials for achieving high performance rechargeable batteries.