Abstract

The development of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries has reached a bottleneck due to the restricted capacity and energy density of conventional transition metal oxides. Meanwhile, the toxic metal-based electrodes will cause damage to the environment, which is not conducive to the concept of sustainable development. Therefore, it is imperative to develop new energy-storage cathode materials that are rich in resource and eco-friendly. The rise of organic electrode materials has brought dawn to researchers. Recently, nitroaromatic compounds have been demonstrated as novel and high-performance organic cathode materials, which opens a new researching direction for lithium-organic batteries. In this thesis, two nitro-containing polymers, nitrocellulose (NC) and nitrated polystyrene (PS-NO2) from recycled ping-pong ball and waste polystyrene, respectively, are studied for their use as organic cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Their electrochemical performances under different parameters have been systematically investigated. It has been shown that NC can achieve a high specific capacity up to 676 mAh g-1 and energy density up to 1396.3 Wh kg-1 and PS-NO2 can reach high specific capacity up to 357 mAh g-1 and energy density up to 678.3 Wh kg-1. However, both polymers display poor cyclability with rapid capacity decays due to irreversible electrochemistry. This research thus shows the potential of two green and sustainable nitro-containing polymeric cathode materials for applications in high energy-density primary LIBs.