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This article reports a bipolar polymer cathode material bearing azo benzene and diamine moieties for affordable and sustainable sodium-ion batteries. 

Bipolar porous polymers bearing carbonyl and amine groups were designed and synthesized as cathode materials in Na-ion and K-ion batteries, demonstrating great promise for high-performance and sustainable batteries. 

Abstract Developing low‐voltage carboxylate anode materials is critical for achieving low‐cost, high‐performance, and sustainable Na‐ion batteries (NIBs). However, the structure design rationale and structure‐performance correlation for organic carboxylates in NIBs remains elusive. Herein, the spatial effect on the performance of carboxylate anode materials is studied by introducing heteroatoms in the conjugation structure and manipulating the positions of carboxylate groups in the aromatic rings. Planar and twisted organic carboxylates are designed and synthesized to gain insight into the impact of geometric structures to the electrochemical performance of carboxylate anodes in NIBs. Among the carboxylates, disodium 2,2’‐bipyridine‐5,5’‐dicarboxylate (2255‐Na) with a planar structure outperforms the others in terms of highest specific capacity (210 mAh g⁻¹), longest cycle life (2000 cycles), and best rate capability (up to 5 A g⁻¹). The cyclic stability and redox mechanism of 2255‐Na in NIBs are exploited by various characterization techniques. Moreover, high‐temperature (up to 100 °C) and all‐organic batteries based on a 2255‐Na anode, a polyaniline (PANI) cathode, and an ether‐based electrolyte are achieved and exhibited exceptional electrochemical performance. Therefore, this work demonstrates that designing organic carboxylates with extended planar conjugation structures is an effective strategy to achieve high‐performance and sustainable NIBs. 

Sodium‐on batteries (SIBs) are promising alternatives to lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) because of the low cost, abundance, and high sustainability of sodium resources. Analogous to LIBs, the high‐capacity electrodes in SIBs always suffer from rapid capacity decay upon long‐term cycling due to the particle pulverization induced by a large volume change. Circumventing particle pulverization plays a critical role in developing high‐energy and long‐life SIBs. Herein, tetrahydroxy‐1,4‐benzoquinone disodium salt (TBDS) that can self‐heal the cracks by hydrogen bonding between hydroxyl group and carbonyl group is employed as a cathode for sustainable and stable SIBs. The self‐healing TBDS exhibits long cycle life of 1000 cycles with a high rate capability up to 2 A g⁻¹due to the fast Na‐ion diffusion reaction in the TBDS cathode. The intermolecular hydrogen bonding has been comprehensively characterized to understand the self‐healing mechanism. The hydrogen bonding‐enabled self‐healing organic materials are promising for developing high‐energy and long‐cycle‐life SIBs.