The lack of stability in the carbon materials, particularly for BP-1300, could also be affected by the presence of pre-existing functional groups on the carbon surface. It is proposed that the presence of these groups blocks anthraquinone from grafting directly to the carbon network, leading to unstable bonds forming upon functionalization. These bonds would be broken under long cycling conditions, reducing the amount of electrochemically accessible quinones. To test these two hypotheses, BP-1300 was thermally annealed to remove functional groups prior to functionalization to investigate if the stability could be improved.