Sustainable Fe-MOF@carbon nanocomposite electrode for supercapacitor

The development of next-generation supercapacitors requires efficient integration of conductive and charge storage framework with safer and sustainable production methods. Herein, a simple one-pot synthesis was used to synthesize Iron based metal-organic framework and carbon composite (Fe-MOF@AC) electrode . The fabricated electrode delivered a high-power storage capacity due to low interfacial resistance between the working electrode and electrolyte. The activated carbon (AC) was obtained from recycled polystyrene , with the aim of reducing plastic pollution and to foster cleaner, sustainable environment. Plastic with insulating property was transformed to highly conductive graphitized carbon, which act as electron reservoirs for pristine Fe-MOF electrodes. Importantly, we show that the increased carbon content up to saturation limit, enables redox to pseudocapacitive behavior with satisfactory capacitive and cyclic stability despite a minimal drop in internal resistance. The MOF electrode composited with 70 mg of AC, Fe-MOF@AC70 retained ∼82% of its initial capacity (628.5 F g −1 ) after 10,000 cycles. Both surface-controlled and diffusion-controlled charge transfer mechanism contribute to the charge storage, with diffusion-controlled being more prevalent in Fe-MOF@AC70. The calculated energy and power density were 16.24 Wh kg −1 and 897.5 W kg −1 , respectively for the fabricated Fe-MOF@AC70/carbon cloth electrode. Sustainable Fe-MOF@AC electrodes for asymmetric supercapaitor.