Metal-organic framework derived hierarchical NiCo₂O₄ triangle nanosheet arrays@SiC nanowires network/carbon cloth for flexible hybrid supercapacitors

To overcome the disadvantages of traditional powder electrodes, such as the insufficient performance, the aggregation of active materials, and the complex fabrication process, rationally constructing free-standing electrode materials with hierarchical architecture is an effective and promising method, which could further improve the electrochemical properties. Herein, using metal-organic framework nanoarrays (MOF_NAs) as self-sacrificial templates and SiC nanowires (SiC_NWs) network as nanoscale conductive skeletons, we successfully fabricated the hierarchical core-shell SiC_NWs@NiCo₂O_4NAs on carbon cloth (CC) substrate. Taking advantages of structural merits, such as hierarchical porous triangle-like NiCo₂O_4NAs, the interwoven SiC_NWs network and conductive CC substrate, when evaluated as a binder-free supercapacitor electrode, the CC/SiC_NWs@NiCo₂O_4NAs shows a high specific capacitance of 1604.7 F g⁻¹ (specific capacity of 222.9 mA h g⁻¹) at 0.5 A g⁻¹, good rate performance, and excellent cycling stability. Significantly, the hybrid supercapacitor assembled with CC/SiC_NWs@NiCo₂O_4NAs as the cathode and MOF derived CC/SiC_NWs@C_NAs as the anode, could deliver a high specific density of 49.9 W h kg⁻¹ at a specific power of 800 W kg⁻¹, stable cycling performance, and good flexibility. Impressively, this feasible strategy for fabricating hierarchical structure displays great potential in the field of energy storage.