Structuring PEDOT Hollow Nanosphere Electrodes for High Specific Energy Li-Metal|Polymer Thin-Film Batteries

Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society. Vapor deposition of tosylate-doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) has been templated to create hollow nanosphere coatings on carbon paper electrodes. The electrochemistry of the PEDOT hollow nanosphere coatings were characterized in nonvolatile and nonflammable Li-based N-methyl-N-propyl pyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide electrolytes. These electrodes exhibit high electrochemical activity for the given deposited mass owing to their heightened electrochemical active area. Furthermore, a multilayer of PEDOT hollow nanospheres as the cathode in a Li coin cell provides stability during repeated charge-discharge cycling against a Li-metal foil anode. With performance equivalent to the theoretical limit for PEDOT (140 mA h g-1), the Li|PEDOT cell has a significant specific energy of ?340 W h/kg. These results give insights into the fabrication and use of nanostructured vapor-deposited conducting polymers for energy storage devices.