Conventional lithium ion cell batteries consist of three major parts in the micrometer range:
- Cathode is an oxidizable material and the source of lithium.
- Electrolyte is a medium with high ionic conductivity
- Anode is a material which can host lithium ion.
Theoretically all the above described parts can be combined in one functional molecule (see Fig):
- A benzenehexolate group is taken as “cathode” part. It carries mobile metal ions and is to prone to oxidation. During charging the benzenehexolate group reversibly transforms to rhodizonate group. Sodium ion can be used as well.
- Polyether chain are shown on the Fig as a "Electrolyte” part. It is a linker between “cathode” and “anode” parts. It facilitates the migration of the metal ion by having electron rich atoms, in this case oxygen atoms.
- Picene group is taken as an “anode” part since it is known that the metal ions can be intercalated to the stack of pi-conjugated molecules while charging.
These functional molecules can be self-aligned vertically by very well known Langmuir-Blodgett technique.
The proposed nanobattery consists of layers of functional molecules in nanometer range.
More details and references can be found here:
10.6084/m9.figshare.3442784.v1
The author is looking for a postdoc position to check the feasibility of the concept.
What is conductivity of "anod" and "cathod" parts? If they are insulators, how to collect the charges from them?
Benzenehexolate was studied as an electrode material and it was shown as promising one. (Chen, H. et al. Lithium Salt of Tetrahydroxybenzoquinone: Toward the Development of a Sustainable Li-Ion Battery. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 8984–8988 (2009).
As for picene, it has been studied for superconductivity (Mitsuhashi, R. et al. Superconductivity in alkali-metal-doped picene. Nature 464, 76–79 (2010) and in organic transistor research
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