Supercapacitors store energy by trapping charged particles in the pores of carbon electrodes, but those pores are a chaotic jumble—no one can say exactly how their size or shape affects performance. This project replaces that disordered carbon with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), crystalline materials whose pores are uniform and tunable. The team will synthesise a series of MOF electrodes, varying pore size, surface chemistry, and particle shape, then measure how each change alters energy storage capacity and charging speed. They will also develop a new in situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique to watch ions move inside the pores during charging, revealing the molecular mechanism—whether ions adsorb, swap, or diffuse—at different voltages. This is fundamental science: it does not build a better supercapacitor tomorrow. Instead, it creates a clear, causal link between electrode structure and device behaviour for the first time. That understanding could eventually guide the design of supercapacitors that charge faster, last longer, or store more energy—improving systems like regenerative braking in electric vehicles, grid-scale power smoothing, or portable electronics where rapid bursts of power matter more than total capacity.
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Supercapacitors are high power energy storage devices that can complement batteries in a more sustainable future. However, the improvement of supercapacitors is hindered by the disordered structures of the porous carbon electrodes that are used. To date, it has been very challenging to correlate electrode structure with (i) supercapacitor performance, and (ii) the molecular charging mechanism, making it very difficult to design improved devices. The emergence of conducting metal-organic framework (MOF) electrodes with well-defined porous structures provides an excellent opportunity to address these challenges. For the first time, we will use MOFs as model electrode systems to transform our understanding of supercapacitors. The overarching objective of SUPERMOFS is to correlate electrode structure with the molecular charging mechanism and performance of supercapacitors. To achieve this goal; 1. We will synthesise a series of MOF electrodes where the pore size, surface functional groups, and particle morphologies are varied. Electrochemical measurements on a series of supercapacitors will then reveal the impact of these structural features on energy storage capacities and charging rates. Our use of structurally well-defined electrodes will lead to unprecedented insights into how electrode structure determines supercapacitor performance. 2. Using our series of MOFs, we will reveal how electrode structure determines the molecular charging mechanisms of supercapacitors for the first time. We will develop new in situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for studying MOF supercapacitors to determine molecular charging mechanisms (ion adsorption, ion exchange etc.), as well as ionic diffusion rates at different cell voltages. These studies will forge a mechanistic bridge between electrode structure and capacitive performance. Overall, this project will transform our understanding of how supercapacitors work, and will directly lead to improved supercapacitors.
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