Prospective life cycle assessment of a flexible all-organic battery

Strong interest from researchers and industry is accelerating development of flexible energy storage technologies for future flexible devices. It is critical to consider the environmental perspective in early development of new emerging technologies. In this study, cradle-to-factory gate prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) was per-formed on production of an all-organic battery with conductive redox polymers as electrode material. To gain a better understanding of the environmental performance of the all-organic battery, a flexible lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery with lithium titanate oxide and lithium cobalt oxide as electrode active materials was modeled as reference. Main environmental impacts of the all-organic battery were attributable to anode and cathode pro-duction, with electrode backbones being the main contributors. Solvents, catalysts, waste treatment, energy, and bromine were key individual contributors. Comparison with the flexible Li-ion battery indicated inferior envi-ronmental performance of the all-organic battery due to its relatively low specific energy (Wh/kg) and large amount of materials needed for production of its electrode backbones. Sensitivity analysis showed that changing scaling-up parameters and the production route of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (a precursor of electrode back-bones) strongly influenced the results. In order to lower the environmental impacts of the all-organic battery, future research should focus on designing a short production chain with lower material inputs of electrode backbones, increasing battery cycle life, and improving the specific energy of the battery. In addition, relevant recommendations were provided for prospective LCAs of upscaled systems.

Automated summary

Strong interest from researchers and industry is driving the development of flexible energy storage technologies. A study on the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of an all-organic battery found that it had inferior environmental performance compared to a flexible lithium-ion battery, mainly due to its low specific energy and high material requirements for electrode backbones. Sensitivity analysis showed that changing scaling-up parameters and the production route of electrode backbone precursors strongly influenced the results. Future research should focus on designing a shorter production chain, reducing material inputs for electrode backbones, increasing battery cycle life, and improving specific energy.