Powering the future, while maintaining a cleaner environment and a strong socioeconomic growth, is going to be one of the biggest challenges faced by mankind in the 21st century. The first step in overcoming the challenge for a sustainable future is to use energy more efficiently so that the demand for fossil fuels can be reduced drastically. The second step is a transition from the use of fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. In this sense, organic electrode materials are becoming increasingly attractive compared to inorganic electrode materials which have reached a plateau regarding performance and have severe drawbacks in terms of cost, safety and environmental friendliness. Using organic composites based on conducting polymers, such as polypyrrole, and abundant, cheap and naturally occurring biopolymers rich in quinones, such as lignin, has recently emerged as an interesting alternative. These materials, which exhibit electronic and ionic conductivity, provide challenging opportunities in the development of new charge storage materials. This review presents an overview of recent developments in organic biopolymer composite electrodes as renewable electroactive materials towards sustainable, cheap and scalable energy storage devices.

A supercapacitor electrode consisting of an interpenetrating network of poly(aminoanthraquinone) (PAAQ) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is synthesized by a simple two-step galvanostatic deposition and characterized by electrochemical methods. By electrodepositing PEDOT on top of PAAQ, it is possible to access the quinones in PAAQ and as a result the specific capacitance of PAAQ increases from 90 to 383 F g(-1) and also significantly improves the charge-storage capacity from 25 to 106 mAh g(-1) at a discharge current of 1 A g(-1). These values are also significantly higher than most reported values for PEDOT and hybrids. Moreover, the hybrid material shows excellent stability with 91% of the initial capacitance being retained after 2000 cycles at a discharge rate of 2 A g(-1).

Renewable, environmentally friendly and cheap materials like lignin and cellulose have been considered as promising materials for use in energy storage technologies. Here, we report a new application for biopolymer electrodes where they can also be simultaneously used as ion pumps to purify industrial wastewater and drinking water contaminated with toxic metals. A ternary composite film consisting of a conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPy), biopolymer lignin (LG) and anthraquinonesulfonate (AQS) was synthesized by one-step galvanostatic polymerization from an aqueous electrolyte solution. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) techniques revealed that lead ions can be extracted from a neutral aqueous solution containing lead ions by applying a potential, and can be released into another solution by reversing the polarity of the applied potential. Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance was used to quantify the amount of metal ions that can be extracted and released.

A ternary composite supercapacitor electrode consisting of phosphomolybdic acid (HMA), a renewable biopolymer, lignin, and polypyrrole was synthesized by a simple one-step simultaneous electrochemical deposition and characterized by electrochemical methods. It was found that the addition of HMA increased the specific capacitance of the polypyrrole-lignin composite from 477 to 682 F g(-1) ( at a discharge current of 1 A g(-1)) and also significantly improved the charge storage capacity from 6(to 128 mA h g(-1).

The electrochemical and charge storage properties of different lignins inside biopolymer electrodes were studied and correlated with the chemical variations of the lignins as indicated from the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic data. The varying fractions of monolignols were found to correlate with charge storage properties. It was found that as the sinapyl to guaiacyl (S/G) ratio increased both the specific capacitance and charge capacity increased considerably. This indicates that quinones generated on S-units can contribute more to charge storage in the biopolymer electrodes.