Molecular Tailoring of an n/p‐type Phenothiazine Organic Scaffold for Zinc Batteries

Abstract The p‐type or n‐type redox reactions of organics are being used as the reversible electrodes to build the next‐generation rechargeable batteries with sustainable and tunable characteristics. However, the n‐type organics that store cations generally exhibit low potential (<0.8 V vs. Zn/Zn 2+ ), while the p‐type organics that store anions suffer from limited capacity (<100 mAh g −1 ). Herein, we demonstrate that bis(phenylamino)phenothiazin‐5‐ium iodide (PTD‐1) containing both n‐type and p‐type redox moieties exhibits a hybrid charge storage mechanism (n/p‐type at low potential, p‐type at high potential). Such a hybrid mechanism combines the advantages of n‐ and p‐type reactions and compensates for the associated drawbacks of each. Accordingly, the aqueous Zn//PTD‐1 full cell shows a high voltage (1.8 V maximum or 1.1 V average ), a high capacity 188.24 mAh g PTD‐1 −1 (achieved at 40 mA g −1 ), a long‐life and a supercapacitor‐like high power. These results shed new light on the design of advanced organic electrodes.