Herein, we present a multigram scale-up route for the preparation of novel polymer composite nanoparticles as potential multifunctional rechargeable material for future, sustainable batteries. The nanoparticles (20 nm) comprise three innocuous yet functional interpenetrated macromolecular networks: polypyrrole, methylcellulose, and lignin. They are uniquely assembled in strands or chains (~200 nm) such as necklace beads and show long-term stability as water dispersion. We find that an aqueous suspension of this hierarchical nanomaterial shows two sets of reversible redox peaks, separated by ~600 mV, originating from the catechol moieties present in the lignin biopolymer. Remarkably, the addition of carbon dioxide increased the capacity of one of the redox processes by 500%. Importantly, the three redox stages occur in the presence of the same nanostructured polymer so being a potentially bifunctional material to be used in advanced electrochemical systems. The new properties are attributed to an intrinsic chemical and electronic coupling at the nanoscale among the different building blocks of the metal-free polymer composite and the structural rearrangement of the interpenetrated polymer network by the incorporation of CO₂. We have provided both a new electrochemically multifunctional hierarchically structured material and a facile route that could lead to novel sustainable energy applications.

在这里，我们提出了一种多克级放大路线，用于制备新型聚合物复合纳米颗粒，作为未来可持续电池的潜在多功能可充电材料。纳米粒子（20 nm）包含三个无害但功能互穿的大分子网络：聚吡咯，甲基纤维素和木质素。它们独特地组装成链或链（约200 nm），例如项链珠并表现出长期稳定的水分散性。我们发现，这种分层纳米材料的水悬浮液显示出两组可逆的氧化还原峰，相距〜600 mV，它们源自木质素生物聚合物中的邻苯二酚部分。值得注意的是，添加二氧化碳使其中一种氧化还原工艺的能力提高了500％。重要的是，三个氧化还原阶段在相同的纳米结构聚合物的存在下发生，因此是潜在的双功能材料，可用于先进的电化学系统。新特性归因于无金属聚合物复合材料不同构件之间的纳米级固有化学和电子偶联，以及通过掺入CO ₂互穿聚合物网络的结构重排。我们提供了一种新型的电化学多功能的层次结构材料，并且提供了一种可能导致新颖的可持续能源应用的简便途径。