Constructing Conjugated Microporous Polymers Containing the Pyrene-4,5,9,10-Tetraone Unit for Energy Storage

In this work, we reported the rational design and synthesis of two pyrene-4,5,9,10-tetraone (PT)-linked conjugated microporous polymers (PT-CMPs) as organic electrode precursors in energy storage applications, which were prepared through the Sonogashira polycondensation reaction of ethynyl pyrene (Py-T)/tetraphenylethene (TPE-T) as common units with brominated pyrene tetraene (PT-Br2) as a redox-active unit. We employed microscopic, spectroscopic, and N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm analyses to investigate the thermal stability, molecular structure, and porosity properties of both newly obtained PT-CMPs. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that both synthesized PT-CMPs feature moderate thermal stability. TheP-PT-CMP exhibited a high BET surface area of up to 300 m2 g–1 and a total pore volume was 0.34 cm3 g–1, based on N2 sorption analyses. Notably, the P-PT-CMP framework displayed a very high capacitance up to 400 F g–1 with superior capacitance stability up to 80% over 5000 cycles at 10 A g–1 according to the supercapacitor performance. In addition, we have evaluated the electrochemical performance of a symmetric coin supercapacitor, showing great potential for real-life applications in electrical energy storage (EES).