Recent progress in rechargeable lithium batteries with organic materials as promising electrodes

Electrode materials play a critical role in achieving high energy density and long cycle life lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The increasing concern with respect to the use of traditional inorganic electrode materials on resources and environmental issues has strongly inspired scientists to search for green energy electrodes. Organic compounds are potentially sustainable and renewable materials as many of them can be obtained from natural products and biomass. Additionally, the properties of organic compounds can be tuned through the modification of the structures as well as the introduction of functional groups. In this review, we summarise recently reported organic electrodes and further classify them into three types (anodes, cathodes and bi-functional electrodes) according to their functions. Moreover, we also highlight the recently reported conjugated ladder polymers, which are believed to be potential high performance electrodes due to their unique conjugated structures, environmental safety, and designing flexibility.