The Mechanism of Modification of Poly(anthraquinonylsulfide) Organic Electrode Materials.

Organic electrode materials have received much attention in recent years, but their solubility of organic affects the capacity of the battery and the cycling performance. The solubility can be effectively reduced by polymerization, which can improve the stability of the material, but the capacity of organic polymer materials generally decreases with an increase in molar mass. In this study, poly(anthraquinonyl sulfide) (PAQS) is strongly oxidized, and its morphological characteristics and active sites are found to change without affecting its solubility, leading to enhanced the battery capacity and stability performance. The experimental results show that PAQS is converted into micro‐sized spherical particles after being treated with H2SO4 solution.This process changes the sulfone group structure of PAQS and increases its active site S=O bond. Calculations show that the adsorption energy of the S=O active site is more stable than that of the original C=O active site, making it easier for the S=O group to adsorb cations. At the same time, the conductivity of PAQS increases after the treatment. The experimental results show that the capacity of the battery is 128.3 mAhg−1 at a current rate of 2 C when the strongly oxidized PAQS is used as the negative electrode, while the initial capacity was only 84.3 mAhg−1 under the same test conditions before the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]