2 Volt Organic battery deveLopment & implemenTAtion – VOLTA

The present basic research project aims to identify and develop highly performing bulk (monomolecular) insertion materials for positive and negative electrode applications of Li-based batteries, and will end by a first prototyping of high performance organic batteries operating at least 2 V in non aqueous electrolyte. Five well identified partners (IMN, LRCS, LG, ICR and CEA-Liten) of the French network on energy storage (RS2E) will be involved in this joint research program. The complementary skill sets of these teams – ranging from organic synthesis to prototyping – will insure the necessary background and know-how to successfully lead/manage this project.
For a few years, batteries have already experienced a strong development with various applications in different industrial sectors such as mobile phones, electronics and automotive engineering, especially Li-ion technology. Recently, new applications have come out such as the development of large storage systems to stabilize the future smart grid. Consequently, the world production of batteries is clearly expected to keep on growing. A possible brake towards such large scale perspectives is related to the chemistries used in all commercialized systems until now. Whatever the considered technology, common electrode reactions involve redox-active inorganic matter provided through mining operations. Moreover, the scarcity of these elements in the earth crust requires some energy intensive process (till the recycling) to be used. Strictly speaking, current technologies are not be sufficient in terms of sustainability and a lot of efforts for reducing their environmental footprint is recommended as clearly announced in European directive 2006/66/EC.
To reduce the pressure on mineral resources while responding to the growing need of consumers, a possible alternative consists in partially moving away from inorganic to organic matter-based electrode materials when it is possible in terms of requirements. Indeed, organic structures are basically constituted by few elements quite abundant on Earth (i.e., C, H, O, N). Secondly, they can potentially be derived from biomass and are easily eliminated by combustion at medium temperatures at their end of life. However, in comparison with inorganic electrodes, the use of organic materials for energy storage was just sporadically studied generating today a lack in terms of operational organic battery technologies making future projections difficult. Thanks to several years of intensive researches in the field of organic insertion materials for Li batteries, partners of the present project have finally accumulated a wide experience in this topic and identified several classes of advanced redox-active structures (nitroxide radicals, lithium enolates and conjuguated carboxylates), which could be used in the bulk state as active materials for positive or negative electrodes. Thus the objective of this project aims to capitalize on previous achievements and go a step further by developing and processing selected organic insertion materials in order to elaborate first realistic organic battery prototypes able to deliver reasonable energy densities (220 Wh/kg of prototype).