Conjugated Polymers as Organic Electrodes for Batteries

Attributed to various causes it is now established that organic matter-based electrodes possess the potential for further improvement in the existing battery technologies while creating novel playgrounds to generate ground-breaking cell configurations. Conjugated polymers (CPs) are characterized as redox-active organic materials exhibiting comparatively high electronic conductivity (as compared to the traditional polymers with insulating properties), superior flexibility, and high electrochemical stability. Credited to these advantages, growing research interest has been recently fixated on the implementation of CPs as potential high-performance organic electrodes for rechargeable batteries. The characteristics of CPs can be tuned through structural modification and incorporation of different functional moieties. With the aid of novel design strategies and core investigations, CPs garner attention as future potential candidates for rechargeable metal-ion batteries as well as for hydronium and proton batteries. To design CPs that can be electrodes for practical applications, it is therefore largely necessary to carry out further extensive investigations on the losses associated with hysteresis as well as the polarization effect of CP nanostructures. This chapter extends a detailed realization of the current state of the organic electrodes for rechargeable batteries. Also, it describes the existing challenges in the field and their possible mitigation strategies. Finally, the chapter highlights some recent remarkable works on the field and ends with a conclusive note about the future possible direction of the research in the field.