Recent advances in carbon material and covalent organic framework composites with a focus on supercapacitors

Abstract

In recent years, numerous carbon material and covalent organic framework (COF) composites have been reported, evincing remarkable potential as high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitors (SCs). COFs possess advantages such as tunable skeletons, variable pore environments, and pre-designed structures. When appropriately combined with carbon materials, they can not only overcome the poor conductivity of COFs but also facilitate high-speed mass transport in permanently open channels and provide dense active sites for efficient adsorption of electrolyte ions. This review summarizes the representative research progress of carbon material-COF composites for SC applications, focusing on the structural design strategies including the introduction of redox-active sites, interfacial bonding engineering, and controllable composite construction. The applications of these composites in various SC devices are systematically discussed, including symmetric, asymmetric, flexible, and micro-supercapacitors. Moreover, a critical overview is provided regarding the key challenges currently faced in this field, such as insufficient structural and electrochemical stability, limited ion transport in stacked structures, difficulties in large-scale and reproducible synthesis, as well as inferior interfacial contact between components. On this basis, future research directions are prospected to promote the rational design and practical development of high-performance carbon material-COF composite electrodes for advanced supercapacitors.