Trimethyltriazine-derived olefin-linked covalent organic framework with ultralong nanofibers

Two-dimensional (2D) olefin-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with excellent π-electron communication and high stability are emerging as promising crystalline polymeric materials. However, because of the limited species of COFs, their characteristics, processability and potential applications have not been completely understood and explored. In this work, we prepared two novel olefin-linked 2D COFs through Knoevenagel condensation of 2,4,6-trimethyl-1,3,5-triazine with tritopic triazine-cored aldehydes. The resulting COFs exhibit highly crystalline honeycomb-like structures stacked from hexagonal-latticed polymeric layers and display well-defined nanofibrillar morphologies with the uniform diameters of ca. 80 nm and ultra-lengths up to several micrometers. Such COF nanofibers can be readily composited with carbon nanotubes into high-quality continuous thin films, which are further compacted by a typical hot-pressing process to enhance their densities and mechanical strength without changing their fibrous microstructures. Such film-fabricated interdigital microelectrodes and the ionogel electrolyte are assembled into planar micro-supercapacitors (MSCs), which exhibit an outstanding areal capacitance of 44.3 mF cm-2, large operating voltage window of 2.5 V, high volumetric energy density of 38.5 mWh cm-3 as well as excellent cycling stability.