Non-conjugated triarylamine-based intrinsic microporous polyamides for an electrochromic supercapacitor: diffusion dynamics and charge-discharge studies

To investigate the counter ion diffusivity of polymers with intrinsic microporous structures during the electrochemical process, Tröger's base (TB) with a non-planar and V-shaped moiety was introduced to facilitate the formation of diffusion channels. The TB-incorporated polyamides ( TPPA-TB and TPPA-Me-TB ) revealed enhanced electrochromic properties due to higher diffusivity, which could effectively narrow down the electrochemical redox potential difference (Δ E ), resulting in a higher switching response speed ( ) while maintaining similar transmittance change (Δ T ). Intriguingly, the triarylamine-based polyamide TPPA-Me-TB demonstrated excellent charge-discharge ability with a high specific capacitance ( C sp ) of 165.3 F g −1 at 1.0 A g −1 and distinct two-stage color changes from colorless to green (0.8 V) and to blue (1.2 V), which could monitor the content of charge capacity. Therefore, these novel redox-active polyamides should be attractive and suitable for electrochromic supercapacitor (ECS) materials. Solution-processable non-conjugated triarylamine-based polyamides with intrinsic microporous structure have been designed to investigate the diffusivity and the charge-discharge ability with distinct two-stage color changes to visualize the capacity.