N-Phenyl naphthalene diimide pendant polymer as a charge storage material with high rate capability and cyclability

Pendent-Type polymers are attractive materials which allow the flexibility to introduce various redox active moieties that facilitate rapid ion/electron transport and enable charge storage. Here, we demonstrate naphthalene diimide polymers with polynorbornene backbone having N-phenyl, PNAn 5 and N-(4-nitrophenyl), PNNO 6. Small changes in the molecular design have led to a significant difference in bulk material and device properties. PNNO 6 maintained 80% of its capacity at 1C after 10 cycles in a Li-ion coin cell. PNAn 5 displayed exceptionally high charge capacity and rate capability with excellent cyclability, maintaining almost its theoretical capacity at various C-rates throughout 500 cycles.