Relating Electrochemistry of New Organic Materials for Batteries and Fundamental Understanding through DFT Calculations

We present DFT investigations on the redox properties of quinone based precursors exhibiting growing interest from the electrochemists community due to their potential application as electrodes for new battery devices, with lower ecological footprint. A screening of various substituents is undertaken with the aim of providing guidelines to the experimentalists towards most promising candidates. A comparison of the effect of aromaticity extension is provided through the comparison of 1,4-benzo-/naphtho-/anthra-quinone and 9,10-anthraquinone backbones. Additionally, this work allowed the establishment of a ranking and quantitative assessment of substituents with respect to both increase and decrease of the redox voltage (useful for positive and negative electrodes, respectively) by considering such functionalizing groups for the monosubstitution of the 1,4-benzoquinone. Our computational work elucidates important fundamental relationships between redox voltage and local chemical bonding features, which may serve to the comprehension and design of new organic electrodes.