Cotton fabric and zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) derived hierarchical nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanotubes/carbon fabric electrodes for all-solid-state supercapacitors

In this work, a facile self-sacrifice template approach is developed to fabricate a nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes/carbon fabric electrode with a hierarchically porous structure from core-shell ZnO@ZIF-8 nanorod array layers on the cotton fiber surface inside cotton fabrics. Numerous pores are also generated on the carbon nanotube walls. The nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanotube array layer provides large surface area, proper porosity and heteroatom-doped carbon skeleton, leading to an enhanced electrochemical performance. This flexible electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 390 F/g at a scan rate of 2 mV/s. This electrode also shows good long-term cycling stability and stable electrochemical performance under mechanical deformations. The assembled all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitor exhibits a high energy density of 23.4 Wh/kg at a power density of 91.4 W/kg.