High-Performance Electrodes for a Hybrid Supercapacitor Derived from a Metal–Organic Framework/Graphene Composite

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) hold great potential in the development of electrode materials for next-generation supercapacitors because of their versatile porous architectures. Here we report our finding in synthesis and characterization of electrode materials derived from a pillared MOF, Ni2(ADC)2(DABCO) for a high-performance hybrid supercapacitor, where ADC represents 9,10-anthracenedicarboxylate and DABCO corresponds to 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane. The positive electrode is derived from a single MOF and graphene oxide (GO) composite, consisting of a highly functionalized nickel hydroxide coupled with graphene, ADC, and DABCO groups. A hierarchically porous nitrogen-rich carbon, derived from the same MOF/GO composite, is used as the negative electrode. The resulting hybrid supercapacitor demonstrates high energy and power density (59 and 48 Wh kg–1 at 0.9 and 15.5 kW kg–1, respectively), good rate capability (19% capacity loss from 1 to 20 A g–1), and exceptional cycling stability (95% capacity retention over 10000 cycles at 20 A g–1). These findings imply that the combination of pillared MOFs and rGO significantly enhances the electrochemical performance of the resulting electrode materials. In addition, this study also provides a new material preparation strategy (MOFs-rGO-derived materials) for synthesis of high-performance electrode materials for other energy storage devices.