When Conductive MOFs Meet MnO2: High Electrochemical Energy Storage Performance in an Aqueous Asymmetric Supercapacitor

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely researched and applied in many fields. However, the poor electrical conductivity of many traditional MOFs greatly limits their application in electrochemistry, especially in energy storage. Benefited from the full charge delocalization in the atomical plane, conductive MOFs (c-MOFs) exhibit good electrochemical performance. Besides, unlike graphene, c-MOFs are provided with 1D cylindrical channels, which can facilitate the ion transport and enable high ion conductivity. Transition-metal oxides (TMOs) are promising materials with good electrochemical energy storage performance due to their excellent oxidation–reduction activity. When composited with TMOs, the c-MOFs can significantly improve the capacitance and rate performance. In this work, for the first time, we designed serial MnO2@Ni-HHTP (HHTP = 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene) nanoarrays with different lengths and explored how the lengths influence the electrochemical energy storage performance. By taking advantage of the high redox activity of MnO2 and the excellent electron and ion conductivity in Ni-HHTP, when assembled as the positive electrode material in an aqueous asymmetric supercapacitor, the device displays high energy density, outstanding rate performance, and superior cycle stability. We believe that the results of this work would provide a good prospect for developing other c-MOF composites as a potential class of electrode materials in energy storage and conversion.