z Materials Science inc. Nanomaterials & Polymers Hierarchical Nanostructured Benzoic Naphthalene Tetracarboxylic Di-imide Organic Cathode for Lithium Ion Battery Sahebrao More, [a] Nageshwar Khupse, [a] Manik Bhosale, [b] Jalindar Ambekar, [a] Milind Kulkarni, [a] and BharatKale* [a] Organic redox active molecules are the promising electrode materials for the Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The semiconduct- ing nature and morphology of these materials provide more efficient charge transport. Hence, it is very important to perform systematic study of such molecules. Herein, we proposed single step synthesis of the benzoic naphthalene diimide (Benzoic-NTCDI) by the reaction of 1, 4, 5, 8- naphthalene tetracarboxylic dianhydride with 4-amino benzoic acid in presence of hydrated zinc acetate as a catalyst. As- synthesized benzoic NTCDI is characterised by using different characterization techniques. The morphological study clearly demonstrate hierarchical porous assembly of 3–5 micron comprised with nanopetals of thickness 5–10 nm. In this hierarchical nanostructure, the nanopetals are originated from the centre and confer voids between the layers of petals. This creates porosity throughout the hierarchical assembly. Consid- ering such unique porous nanostructure and good conductivity of the Benzoic-NTCDI (1.19×10  5 S/m), it has been used as a cathode for LIB.The Li-cell was fabricated using Benzoic-NTCDI as a cathode which demonstrated the reversible capacity of 102 mAhg  1 at 0.05 C rate. Moreover, the capacity of 91 mAhg  1 is retained at current density of 0.1 C exhibiting good rate capability after 24 cycles. The Li-ion transport has been accelerated is ascribed to the porous hierarchical nano- structure. The potential of one of the heterocyclic molecule with hierarchical nanostructure as a cathode for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has been demonstrated for the first time 1. Introduction Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are becoming more admired rechargeable batteries, which is used as a power source for electronic devices because of good rechargeability and power densities compared to other batteries. Currently, the designing of LIB is entirely relies on the intercalation of inorganic host materials which behaves as either cathode, anode. [1–5] It is well known that transition metal oxide based electrode materials have many limitations such as low specific energy, capacity fade and more expensiveness.Hence, issue of these materials could be resolved by finding the alternative electrode materi- als. Therefore, LIB with organic electrodes are more efficient and rapid energy storage for sustainable energy delivery because of its huge natural abundance, inexpensive synthesis, easy recycling, adorable reaction kinetics and massive structural diversity in comparison with transition metal oxides. Because of these properties, it compels us for the usage of organic electrode materials for charge storage. [6–8] Hence, lithium-ion batteries with organic electrode materials are attractive. [9–11] The one of the intrinsic drawback of organic material is its poor electronic conductivity. This issue comes mainly in case of polymeric organic materials that possess slow reaction kinetics which causes interferences in Li-ion transportation. Hence, conducting additives such as carbon black, graphene, carbon nanotubes are required for enhancing the conductivity. [12–17] Therefore, design and development of small organic molecules with redox active groups as electrode material opens the new window in the research of LIBs. [18] Moreover, to discriminate with inorganic counterpart, it is known that silicon has accomplished tremendous significance because silicon has ten times higher specific capacity than graphite-based materi- als, but it undergoes a four-times volume change. [19] Therefore, emergence of large scale application of inorganic batteries adhere certain shortages which influences the usage of organic material. Hence, these materials integrate the graph of organic materials in lithium ion batteries (LIBs) technology. [20,21] The capacity and stability of organic redox active materials can be increased by doping or developing the structurally stable molecules. [22,23] Several kind of organic electrode materials have been reported by researchers such as quinones, [24,25] polyimides, [26] conjugated polymers, [27] conducting polymers, [28,29] organosulfur compound etc. These materials offer a high capacities in the range of 300–800 mAhg  1 with exceptionally poor cyclability. The high-power density and [a] S. More, Dr. N. Khupse, Dr. J. Ambekar, Dr. M. Kulkarni, Dr. BharatKale Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology,(C–MET) Panchawati, Dr Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411008 India (MeiTY Gov. of India) E-mail: bbkale@cmet.gov.in [b] Dr. M. Bhosale M.Bhosale Department of chemical and Biological Engineering University of Sheffield Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S13 JD, UK Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under https://doi.org/10.1002/slct.201904741 Full Papers DOI: 10.1002/slct.201904741 2157 ChemistrySelect 2020, 5, 2157–2163 © 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim