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  • Review Article
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Organic batteries for a greener rechargeable world

Nature Reviews Materials volume 8, pages 54–70 (2023)Cite this article

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The emergence of electric mobility has placed high demands on lithium-ion batteries, inevitably requiring a substantial consumption of transition-metal resources. The use of this resource raises concerns about the limited supply of transition metals along with the associated environmental footprint. Organic rechargeable batteries, which are transition-metal-free, eco-friendly and cost-effective, are promising alternatives to current lithium-ion batteries that could alleviate these mounting concerns. In this Review, we present an overview of the efforts to implement transition-metal-free organic materials as the redox-active component in diverse types of organic rechargeable batteries. In addition, we critically evaluate the current status of organic rechargeable batteries from a practical viewpoint and assess the feasibility of their use in various energy-storage applications with respect to environmental and economic aspects. We believe this Review provides a timely evaluation of organic rechargeable batteries from a real-world perspective, and we hope it will spur more intensive efforts towards a greener energy future.

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Fig. 1: Comparative analysis of environmental and economic merits of redox-active organic materials.
Fig. 2: Redox motifs in representative redox-active organic electrodes.
Fig. 3: Molecular structures of representative redox-active organic materials.
Fig. 4: Comparative analysis of specific energy of representative redox-active organic materials.
Fig. 5: Comparative analysis of rate capability and cycle performance.
Fig. 6: Potential of employing redox-active organic materials for post-lithium-ion battery configurations.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Creative Materials Discovery Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2017M3D1A1039553). This work was also supported by the Center for Nanoparticle Research at Institute for Basic Science (IBS) (IBS-R006-A2).

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  1. Youngmin Ko

    Present address: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

  2. These authors contributed equally: Jihyeon Kim, Youngsu Kim, Jaekyun Yoo.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials (RIAM), Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jihyeon Kim, Youngsu Kim, Jaekyun Yoo, Giyun Kwon, Youngmin Ko & Kisuk Kang

  2. Institute of Engineering Research, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Youngmin Ko & Kisuk Kang

  3. Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute of Basic Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kisuk Kang

  4. School of Chemical and Bioengineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kisuk Kang

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Contributions

J.K. led the process, and prepared the content in the ‘Applications in rechargeable batteries’ section and the ‘Perspective’ section. Y. Kim prepared the content of the ‘Alternative energy storage platforms’ section. J.Y. prepared the content of the ‘Introduction’, ‘Assessment of redox-active organics’ and ‘Redox-active organic materials’ sections. J.K., Y. Kim and J.Y. revised and edited the manuscript before publication. All authors participated in researching data and substantial discussion about organization of manuscript.

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Kim, J., Kim, Y., Yoo, J. et al. Organic batteries for a greener rechargeable world. Nat Rev Mater 8, 54–70 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00478-1

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