Conductive Metal–Organic Frameworks Selectively Grown on Laser-Scribed Graphene for Electrochemical Microsupercapacitors

Conductive 2D metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have merits beyond traditional MOFs for electrochemical applications, but reports on using MOFs as electrodes for electrochemical microsupercapacitors (MSCs) are practically non-existent. In this work, a Ni-catecholate-based MOF (Ni-CAT MOF) having good conductivity and exhibiting redox chemistry in the positive and negative voltage windows is developed. A novel process is developed to selectively grow the conductive Ni-CAT MOF on 3D laser scribed graphene (LSG). The LSG with its superior wettability serves as a functional matrix-current collector for the hybridization of conductive Ni-CAT MOF nanocrystals. Impressively, MSCs fabricated using the hybrid LSG/Ni-CAT MOF show significant improvement compared with MOF-free LSG electrodes. Specifically, the LSG/Ni-CAT MOF electrodes can deliver MSCs with a wide operating voltage (1.4 V), high areal capacitance (15.2 mF cm−2), energy density (4.1 µWh cm−2), power density (7 mW cm−2), good rate performance, and decent cycling stability. This work opens up an avenue for developing electrochemical microsupercapacitors using conductive MOF electrodes.