One-Step Synthesis of a Polymer Cathode Material Containing Phenoxazine with High Performance for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Easily prepared polymer electrode materials are a kind of welcome and environmentally friendly battery materials. In this work, a polymer electrode material was first synthesized using linear poly(vinylbenzyl chloride) available commercially as a polymer skeleton and phenoxazine as a redox-active segment. Utilization of this polymer in the lithium-ion battery was confirmed with a discharge capacity of 85 mAh g–1 at 50 mA g–1, which is very close to the theoretical specific capacity value of 89.5 mAh g–1. After 500 cycles, the discharge capacity at 200 mA g–1 still retained 77% of its theoretical value, attributed to the poor solubility and the special structure of the designed polymer. Furthermore, it possesses a high charging and discharging platform (3.62 V vs Li/Li+) as well as the lowest charge transfer resistance. Development of these polymer families will inspire researchers to design cathode materials based on polymers available commercially and to better understand their electrochemical performance.