Sustainable Battery Materials from Biomass Clemensliedel*[A]
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Reviews ChemSusChem doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201903577 Sustainable Battery Materials from Biomass ClemensLiedel*[a] ChemSusChem 2020, 13,2110–2141 2110 2020 The Authors. PublishedbyWiley-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim Reviews ChemSusChem doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201903577 Sustainable sourcesofenergyhave been identified as apossi- batteries, cathodes in metal–sulfur or metal–oxygen batteries, ble way out of today’s oil dependency and are being rapidly or as conductive additives. On the other hand, aplethora of developed. In contrast, storage of energy to alarge extentstill biomolecules,such as quinones, flavins, or carboxylates, con- relies on heavy metals in batteries. Especially when built from tain redox-active groupsthat can be used as redox-activecom- biomass-derived organics, organicbatteries are promising al- ponents in electrodes with very little chemical modification. ternatives and pave the way towards truly sustainable energy Biomass-based binders can replace toxic halogenated commer- storage. First described in 2008, research on biomass-derived cial binders to enableatruly sustainable future of energystor- electrodes has been taken up by amultitude of researchers age devices. Besides the electrodes, electrolytes and separators worldwide. Nowadays, in principle, electrodes in batteries may also be synthesized from biomass.Inthis Review,recent could be composed of all kinds of carbonized and noncarbon- research progress in this rapidly emerging field is summarized ized biomass:Onone hand, all kinds of (waste) biomass may with afocusonpotentially fully biowaste-derived batteries. be carbonized and used in anodesoflithium- or sodium-ion 1. Introduction case of windmills andsolar panels, respectively)additionally demands for advanced grid storageofelectricalenergy. In 2008, Chen et al. presented dilithium rhodizonate as a Common storagedevices in this regard are supercapacitors biomass-derived sustainable cathode material for lithium-ion and batteries, with batteries usually enabling higher energy batteries with ahigh chargestoragecapability at areasonable density at the expense of powerdensity. potential. They foresaw that the “considerationofrenewable When talking about sustainable battery materials, the con- resources in designing electrode materials could potentially cept of sustainability in chemistry needs to be discussed first.[3] enable the realizationofgreen and sustainable batteries within It includes not only the principles of green chemistry,asintro- the next decade.”[1] Since then, significant advancements have duced by Anastas and Warner,[4] but also aspects like water pu- been made,and several concepts of green and sustainable rification, alternative energies,exposure control of chemicals, batteries have been presented. Now,more than one decade and others.[5] In general,chemistrycan only be considered later,itistime to evaluatedevelopments and future trends in sustainable if—adapted from aUnited Nationsdefinition of the field of battery materials made from renewable resources. sustainable development—it “meets the needs of the present This Reviewwillsummarize major accomplishments and give without compromising the ability of future generations to an outlooktofuture sustainable biomass-derived batteries. meet their own needs”;[6] that is, fossil resources are not being The need for renewable sources of energy is well-known depleted, the environment is not being polluted, and feed- and has long been identifiedasapossible way out of today’s stocks are completely renewable and not overused.Asustaina- oil dependency.[2] For truly sustainable usage of renewable ble chemical process should be environmentally benign, eco- energy,however,devices for energy storage should also be as nomical in its use of resources, techniques, and industrial feasi- benign as possible, for example, by being made of sustainable bility,and socially responsible,whereasasustainable chemical materials. In contrast to nonrenewable sources of energy materialshould be environmentally benign throughout its full (chemicals that releaseenergy upon burning), which can lifecycle, including mining, usage,and recycling.Itshould fur- rather easily be stored in tanks and used when needed, renew- thermore be economical during fabrication, distribution, usage, able sources of energy predominantly produce electrical and recycling, as well as being produced and used in asocially energy,which requires more sophisticated storagedevices. Im- responsible way.Tosome extent, side products of contempo- portantly,not only off-grid devices, such as cellphones and rary industries, such as sulfur as awaste product from petro- cars, necessitate such advanced devices for the storage of elec- chemicalindustry,might also qualify as rather sustainable raw trical energy,but the fluctuating availability of renewable elec- materials. trical energy depending on the weather or time of day (in the Larcher and Tarascondiscussed the concept of sustainability for batteries.[7] The impact of acell not only depends on the [a] Dr.C.Liedel chemicalcomposition but is the sum of the impacts of chemi- Department Colloid Chemistry cal composition,synthesis process, implementation in the Max Planck Institute of Colloidsand Interfaces system,and recycling. Commercial lithium-ion batteries usually Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam (Germany) E-mail:[email protected] fail such sustainabilitycriteria. They typicallycomprise pow- The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can dered heavy metal-containing inorganic active materials in the be found under: electrodes (often obtained under questionable conditions in https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201903577. developing countries), very thin membranes to separatecath- 2020 The Author. PublishedbyWiley-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA. ode from anode,and highly flammable carbonate-based elec- This is an openaccessarticleunder the termsofthe Creative Commons trolytes that form aresistive solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI) AttributionLicense, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in [8] any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. on the electrodes, leading to heatgeneration in operation. This publication is part of aSpecial Issue focusing on “Organic Batteries”. This setup inherently imposes dangers during malfunction, and Please visit the issue at http://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.v13.9. even thoughthe always-implemented battery monitoring ChemSusChem 2020, 13,2110–2141 www.chemsuschem.org 2111 2020 The Authors. PublishedbyWiley-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim Reviews ChemSusChem doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201903577 system usually prevents problemsduring operation, battery state can be oxidized to apositivelycharged state), or b-type fires are omnipresentproblems that can often be encountered (in which the neutral state can both be reduced to the nega- in the media. Moreover,recycling of lithium-ion batteries is not tively charged state and oxidized to the positively charged awidely established process yet,[9] and productionaswell as state),depending on their redox reactions. In principle, n-, p-, operation resultsinsignificant greenhouse gas emissions.[10] and b-type organics may be used as cathode or anode materi- Many approaches have been described forincreasing the al. Because of stabilityreasons andredoxpotential, p-type or- sustainability of battery materials, which have usually tackled ganics however are only used in organic cathodes, whereas n- individual aspectssuch as composition,[8,11] recycling,[12] and and b-type organicsmay be used in both electrodes.[21] In implementation. For example, intense efforts have been made nature,n-type redox reactions are more common than p-type to replace cobalt in LiCoO2 cathodes by more abundant ele- redox reactions, meaning that biomolecules can, in principle, ments because of socio-economic and ecological concerns, as be used in both electrodes of abattery. well as limited supply and limited full cell potential. Higher cell Another means by which to classify organic electrode mate- potentialalongside more sustainable cathode materials have rials is by their redox chemistry.Differentredox mechanisms been achieved for example by movingfrom layeredoxides, as are present in conjugatedsystems, carbonyl compounds, in LiCoO2,towards certain phospho-olivines or spinel oxides. stable radical containing compounds, organodisulfides, and These more availableinorganic cathode (and also anode) thioethers. Out of these, only some carbonyl and possibly materials may be obtained by using biotemplates,[13–15] bio- some sulfur-containing compounds are directly availablefrom mineralization,[16] andother low-temperature processes.These biomass.All other classes of materialneed to be synthesized sustainable batteries with inorganic electrodes have been from petrochemical precursors, or requireharsh, unsustainable summarized in recent years in several excellent reviews.[11,17] modifications of biomass-derived chemicals and are, as such, Organic materials may similarly be used insteadofcommon not as sustainable as chemicals that are directly available in re- inorganic electrode materials and have been investigated for grown biomass or can be synthesized from biomass in benign severaldecades now.[18] Using any organics as active cell com- reactions. ponents decreases the need for rare metals and, as such, con- In this Review,organic battery components may only be tributes to more sustainable energy storage. Thus, in many re- considered sustainable if they can be made from biological