From Biomass to a Renewable Li X C 6 O 6 Organic Electrode for Sustainable Li‐Ion Batteries

Li-ion batteries presently operate on inorganic insertion compounds. The abundance and materials life-cycle costs of such batteries may present issues in the long term with foreseeable large-scale applications. To address the issue of sustainability of electrode materials, a radically different approach from the conventional route has been adopted to develop new organic electrode materials. The oxocarbon salt Li2C6O6 is synthesized through potentially low-cost processes free of toxic solvents and by enlisting the use of natural organic sources (CO2-harvesting entities). It contains carbonyl groups as redox centres and can electrochemically react with four Li ions per formula unit. Such battery processing comes…