A Redox Tale of Two Phosphine Oxides (and a Terthiophene)

Abstract

Despite the appeal of organic redox systems as next-generation energy-storage media, achieving high cell voltages with electrolytes based on main-group elements typically comes at the cost of reduced long-term stabilities. In this Synpacts article, we summarize our recent finding that the introduction of phosphine oxide functionalities can unlock the ability of terthiophenes to serve as robust two-electron acceptors at extreme potentials. These investigations uncovered a fundamentally new class of multielectron redox systems, capable of expanding the cell potential range achievable with organic electrolytes without compromising stability.