Doped Conjugated Polymer Enclosing a Redox Polymer: Wiring Polyquinones with Poly(3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene)

The mass implementation of renewable energies is limited by the absence of efficient and affordable technology to store electrical energy. Thus, the development of new materials is needed to improve the performance of actual devices such as batteries or supercapacitors. Herein, the facile consecutive chemically oxidative polymerization of poly(1-amino-5-chloroanthraquinone) (PACA) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT) resulting in a water dispersible material PACA-PEDOT is shown. The water-based slurry made of PACA-PEDOT nanoparticles can be processed as film coated in ambient atmosphere, a critical feature for scaling up the electrode manufacturing. The novel redox polymer electrode is a nanocomposite that withstands rapid charging (16A g(-1)) and delivers high power (5000Wkg(-1)). At lower current density its storage capacity is high (198mAhg(-1)) and displays improved cycling stability (60% after 5000 cycles). Its great electrochemical performance results from the combination of the redox reversibility of the quinone groups in PACA that allows a high amount of charge storage via Faradaic reactions and the high electronic conductivity of PEDOT to access to the redox-active sites. These promising results demonstrate the potential of PACA-PEDOT to make easily organic electrodes from a water-coating process, without toxic metals, and operating in non-flammable aqueous electrolyte for large scale pseudocapacitors.