3D Carbon Materials for High-Performance Electric Energy Storage Facilities

Alkali-metal-based batteries and supercapacitors with high energy or power performance are two promising candidates to satisfy the need of electric consuming devices in the modern society. However, classical 2D planar materials with few electron-transfer paths and low active area are unable to support such systems. With the merits of high electrochemical/physical/mechanical properties, the 3D carbon frameworks are achieving booming interest as current collectors and support structures to fabricate the electrodes with ideal properties. Herein, this Spotlight publication focuses on the recent advances in the development of 3D carbon current collectors (CCCs), the performance improvements of the corresponding electrode, and the energy storage devices. In addition, discussions about the relationship between the electrochemical properties and the special structure of the scaffold are also given in this paper. Furthermore, we concluded the disadvantages of the currently proposed 3D CCCs and provide some expectations of future rational design current collectors with better properties.