2,3,6,7,10,11-Hexamethoxytriphenylene (HMTP): A new organic cathode material for lithium batteries

We propose a new organic cathode material for rechargeable lithium battery applications: 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexamethoxytriphenylene (HMTP). HMTP is composed of six methoxy functional groups substituted onto a central triphenylene moiety. The cell, incorporating 40 wt.% of organic cathode material, exhibits full specific capacity at current densities up to 3 C. The main advantage of HMTP as organic cathode material lies in a stable cell performance and negligible self discharge, even though the capacity is lower, ~ 66 mAh/g, compared to other organic cathode materials. Cells with the HMTP cathode showed > 95% retention of the initial discharge capacity after 50 cycles at 1 C and self-discharge was not observed during a full month of open circuit voltage measurements. The latter is due to the fact that the nature of the HMTP radical is fundamentally different from other organic cathode materials' radicals.

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► We propose a new organic cathode material (HMTP) for rechargeable lithium battery applications.
► HMTP exhibits full specific capacity at current densities up to 3 C.
► HMTP is an electrochemically stable material with low self-discharge.