(Iso)alloxazine incorporating electrodes as high-performance organic energy storage materials

The ever-increasing demands for energy coupled with the decline in fossil fuels make advances in energy storage capability of paramount importance. The use of batteries to store electrical energy is becoming increasingly widespread. However, their current and predicted future use is presenting new challenges due to imitations in battery performance and scarcity of materials. It is therefore vital that next generation energy storage materials for batteries are developed to circumvent these issues.

We propose to deliver (iso)alloxazine derivatives as tuneable organic energy storage materials. Organic materials have been much less widely investigated than inorganic systems, and our proposed use of these bio-inspired organic materials with their convenient chemical synthesis, tuneable redox properties and ability to bind to multiple Li-ions of the electrolyte are attractive systems for development. More specifically, we aim to embed the (iso)alloxazine units in porous architectures for incorporation as electrodes for advanced Li- and Na-ion batteries. The expectation is that the juxtaposition of these high-performance environmentally benign materials within porous and self-healing architectures will provide new electrodes with optimised energy density and sustained cyclability.

The depletion of fossil fuels and the need to combat global warming through the use of renewable energy is at the forefront of political and societal concern. The development of reliable and effective electrical energy storage systems is of paramount importance, and needs to keep pace with developments in renewable energy production. Li-ion batteries are ubiquitous and as well as powering our portable devices, have begun to emerge as possible technology for hybrid electric and electric vehicles (HEV), making the potential impact of our proposed research programme far-reaching given current global energy demands and associated need for energy storage.

Global energy consumption is likely to triple by the year 2100, therefore, the likely advances this research programme makes in the field of Li-ion batteries as part of this SUPERGEN project will have a clear economic and societal impact. Furthermore, the proposed improvements our systems will bring in terms of energy and power densities will be of interest to the expanding HEV market.

The project's vision is focused on providing next generation energy storage devices, which will be achieved by utilizing high-performance organic materials, engineered architectures, state-of-the-art advanced characterisation techniques and high level computational methods to guide the synthetic programme. The dissemination of our findings to the research community and energy-related industry will have significant economic impact and will help to preserve the UK position at the forefront of Li ion battery technology, generating UK jobs and economic growth. Furthermore, as the use of organic materials in batteries is not well represented in the UK, our research programme could help address this shortfall through new academic and industrial partnerships.

Our research programme brings together through the Management Group established leading research teams and emerging investigators that have excellent track records in materials and energy-related research. Their unique mix of expertise is key in tackling the challenges highlighted in this research programme. A major outcome of this SUPERGEN proposal will be the training and career development the PDRAs will receive on this programme. Knowledge dissemination will be achieved through high profile publications, conference presentations and use of social media.