Herringbone packed contorted aromatics with ordered three-dimensional channels as fast-charging and low-temperature lithium-ion battery anodes

The long transmission pathways and slow lithium-ion insertion process are the main challenges of anode materials for fast-charging and low-temperature lithium-ion batteries. Herein, hierarchical supramolecular structures with a herringbone packing motif were achieved in the self-assembled crystals of contorted hexabenzocoronene octa-ketone ( c -HBC-8O) through C-H π interactions. Due to the formation of ordered three-dimensional lithium-ion transport channels, c -HBC-8O yielded a lithium-ion diffusion coefficient of up to 4.1 × 10 −8 cm 2 s −1 , which is one order of magnitude higher than those of previously reported organic anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. As a proof-of-concept, the c -HBC-8O anode delivered outstanding fast-charging ability, high capacity and durable cycle stability of 298.3 mA h g −1 at 5 A g −1 after 3000 cycles (25 °C) and 320 mA h g −1 at 200 mA g −1 after 1000 cycles even at low temperature (−20 °C). The present strategy opens up new approaches for the design of π-conjugated anode materials for lithium-ion batteries based on weak C-H π interactions. A graphite material ( c -HBC-8O) with three-dimensional lithium-ion transport channels was prepared and used as a lithium-ion battery anode electrode, which delivers superior fast-charge capacity, cycle stability and outstanding rate performance.