Disulfide bonded polyimide cathode of rechargeable magnesium batteries: Improved capacity via reversible break/formation of disulfide and sulfur-oxygen bonds

Rechargeable magnesium batteries are a potential selection for large-scale energy storage technologies, but development of cathode materials is the major difficulty at present. Organic polyimides are promising magnesium battery cathodes with the open and amorphous frameworks as well as enhanced charge delocalization. However, only two carbonyls are redox-active out of four for each imide unit, which largely limits the capacity. Herein, a new polyimide containing disulfide bond is fabricated and studied as cathode for rechargeable magnesium batteries. This polyimide shows a high capacity beyond the traditional two-electron principle. A mechanism study demonstrates that carbonyl enolization and disulfide bond break/formation occur in the redox process, leading to formation/break of sulfur-oxygen bond. This sulfur-oxygen bond enhances enolization and electron delocalization, resulting in an improved capacity. Further theoretical computation indicates a charge transfer within this sulfur-oxygen bond. The two-electron reduction state exhibits quite low HOMO and LUMO energy levels, which makes the disulfide bonded polyimide have a higher tendency to accept more electrons and a higher oxidation stability after reduction.