TEMPO-Substituted Poly(ethylene sulfide) for Solid-State Electro-Chemical Charge Storage.

A poly(ethylene sulfide) backbone is introduced as the main chain of a radical polymer. Anionic ring-opening polymerization of an episulfide monomer substituted with 2,2,6,6tetramethylpiperidin1oxyl (TEMPO), a robust nitroxide radical, yields the corresponding polythioether. Compared to the traditional poly(ethylene oxide) backbone, the new polymer shows a lower glass transition temperature (-10 °C), and about threefold higher solid-state ionic conductivity. The polythioether is also shown to improve the charge/discharge properties of a cathode in solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

Ultrathin and Stretchable Rechargeable Devices with Organic Polymer Nanosheets Conformable to Skin Surface.

Ultrathin flexible electronic devices have been attracting substantial attention for biomonitoring, display, wireless communication, and many other ubiquitous applications. In this article, organic robust redox-active polymer/carbon nanotube hybrid nanosheets with thickness of just 100 nm are reported as power sources for ultrathin devices conformable to skin. Regardless of the extreme thinness of the electrodes, a moderately large current density of 0.4 mA cm-2 is achieved due to the high output of the polymers (>10 A g-1 ). For the first time, the use of mechanically robust yet intrinsically soft electrodes and polymer nanosheet sealing leads to the fabrication of rechargeable devices with only 1-µm thickness and even with stretchable properties.

An Ultrahigh Output Rechargeable Electrode of a Hydrophilic Radical Polymer/Nanocarbon Hybrid with an Exceptionally Large Current Density beyond 1 A cm-2.

Facile charge transport by a hydrophilic organic radical-substituted polymer and the 3D current collection by a self-assembled mesh of single-walled carbon nanotube bundles lead to the operation of an ultrahigh-output rechargeable electrode. Exceptionally large current density beyond 1 A cm-2 and high areal capacity around 3 mAh cm-2 are achieved, which are 101-2 times larger than those of the previously reported so-called "ultrafast electrodes." A sub-millimeter-thick, flexible, highly safe organic redox polymer-based rechargeable device with an aqueous sodium chloride electrolyte is fabricated to demonstrate the superior performance.