HIU Seminar | Dr. Rebeca Marcilla
Dr. Rebeca Marcilla from IMDEA Energy Madrid will be guest during the upcoming HIU Seminar taking place on Tuesday, 3rd March 2026 at 2:00 pm: The talk will be held in person in the large seminar room (230) at the HIU and streamed under the usual Zoom link: The title of the talk will be “Designing Redox Polymers for Charge Storage: From Molecular Structure to Battery Performance".
Abstract
The rapid growth of electrochemical energy storage technologies demands high-performance, cost-effective, and sustainable materials. In this talk, I will present our recent advances in developing organic electrode materials (OEMs), including both linear and hyperbranched designs, with a particular focus on redox-active conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) as versatile candidates for next-generation batteries. CMPs offer key advantages—such as enhanced electrolyte infiltration, short ion/electron diffusion paths, and robust mechanical stability—that enable high capacity utilization, rapid charge/discharge kinetics, and outstanding cycling stability. This presentation will be structured around three main aspects:
Design and Synthesis: I will describe the design, synthesis, and comprehensive characterization of novel CMPs with high specific surface areas (SBET > 700 m² g⁻¹) and tailored micro/mesoporosity. Using redox-active n-type building blocks (2,6-dibromoanthraquinone and 2,7-dibromophenazine) and Sonogashira cross-coupling polymerization, we developed anthraquinone-based CMPs and phenazine-based CMPs (named as IEP-11 and IEP-27, repectively). Hybrid CMPs incorporating nanocarbons were synthesized via miniemulsion polymerization and solvothermal processes to enhance conductivity and dispersibility.
Advanced Aqueous Batteries: We explored CMP anodes to overcome the solubility and low rate performance issues commonly faced by small molecules and linear polymers. The IEP-11 anode demonstrated impressive performance in alkaline environments, achieving capacities exceeding 150 mAh g⁻¹, rate capabilities over 50C, and cycle life beyond 20,000 cycles [1]. Additionally, the phenazine-based CMP (IEP-27) showed exceptional areal capacities (>2 mAh cm⁻²), excellent low-temperature performance (< -10 °C), and remarkable long-term stability (>10,000 cycles) in acidic systems [2].
Expanding Applicability and Practicability: CMPs and hyperbranched polymers were also tested as high-performing cathodes in lithium [3], sodium [4], and aluminium-based batteries [5]. Both n-type anthraquinone-based CMPs (IEP-11) and p-type hyperbranched phenothiazine polymers (IEP-29) exhibited excellent areal capacities (>3 mAh g⁻¹) in lithium half-cells, with p-type IEP-29 showing higher voltage. In this talk, I will emphasize our attempts to improve the practicability of organic electrodes by reducing the percentage of inactive carbon additives and increasing the mass loadings. High areal capacity electrodes (≥ 3 mAh cm⁻²) with low carbon content (~20 wt.%) and high mass loading (>30 mg cm⁻²) were fabricated, significantly improving energy density and cost-effectiveness of the developed organic electrodes.