Carbon Nanotubes Exfoliated HATN-COF for Efficient Supercapacitor Active Materials

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a type of crystalline porous polymers that exhibit vast application potential in the energy field because of their abundant active sites, inherent porosity, and extensive specific surface area, rendering their potential application in the fields of energy very promising. Here, a series of HATN-COF (hexaazatriphenylene, HATN) exfoliated by carbon nanotubes (CNT@HATN-COF-x) have been developed through a mild in situ composite and chemical stripping method. The exfoliation process results in HATN-COF layers with an approximate thickness of around 4.5 nm intricately interfaced with the CNTs. Significantly, the resulting supercapacitor based on [email protected] achieves high specific capacitance reaching 436 F/g along with an exceptionally high energy density amounting to 155.3 W h/kg. Moreover, the supercapacitor maintained 100% capacitance after a 10,000 cycles of stability test, indicating that the addition of CNT has a negligible effect on the stable structure of the COF. This research successfully enhances the compact layered arrangement of COFs, offering practical insights for their utilization in advanced energy storage systems and the field of electrochemistry.