Rational Molecular Design of Benzoquinone‐Derived Cathode Materials for High‐Performance Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract p ‐Benzoquinone (BQ) is a promising cathode material for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical specific capacity and voltage. However, it suffers from a serious dissolution problem in organic electrolytes, leading to poor electrochemical performance. Herein, two BQ‐derived molecules with a near‐plane structure and relative large skeleton: 1,4‐bis( p ‐benzoquinonyl)benzene (BBQB) and 1,3,5‐tris( p ‐benzoquinonyl)benzene (TBQB) are designed and synthesized. They show greatly decreased solubility as a result of strong intermolecular interactions. As cathode materials for LIBs, they exhibit high carbonyl utilizations of 100% with high initial capacities of 367 and 397 mAh g −1 , respectively. Especially, BBQB with better planarity presents remarkably improved cyclability, retaining a high capacity of 306 mAh g −1 after 100 cycles. The cycling stability of BBQB surpasses all reported BQ‐derived small molecules and most polymers. This work provides a new molecular structure design strategy to suppress the dissolution of organic electrode materials for achieving high performance rechargeable batteries.