Versatile NiO/mesoporous carbon nanodisks: controlled synthesis from hexagon shaped heterobimetallic metal–organic frameworks

Hexagonal NiO/mesoporous carbon nanodisks (NiO/MCN) are facilely and controllably synthesized via constructing nickel-zinc trimesic acid heterobimetallic metal-organic framework (HMOF) disks before pyrolysis at 910 °C. Tailoring the Ni/(Zn + Ni) feed ratio and the reaction time during the HMOF synthesis creates a well-defined hexagonal carbon nanodisk with properly populated NiO nanocrystals while maintaining high porosity and conductivity. Such an elaborately fabricated NiO/MCN is highly stable, and exhibits the largest specific capacitance of 261 F g^-1 and the highest specific activity factor of 1.93 s^-1 g^-1 of any composite nanodisk during the capacitive test and 4-nitrophenol reduction, respectively.