Molten-salt directed mesopore engineering of carbon nanotubes for energetic quasi-solid-state supercapacitors

Polymer gel electrolytes have been actively employed in exploiting solid-state supercapacitors. However, the access to tiny pores of electrode materials is hindered by the sticky nature and sluggish ion transport of polymers. Consequently, supercapacitors usually present much lower capacitance in gel electrolytes than in liquid elec-trolytes. Here, we develop a molten-salt-directed mesopore engineering to design carbon nanotubes that are highly accessible to gel electrolytes. The rich mesopores, 12-15 nm in diameter and cross-linked, drastically facilitate the infilling of gel electrolytes into carbon nanotubes, leading to robust capacitive performance. Such mesoporous carbon nanotubes exhibit a high capacitance of 195.2 F g-1 in polyvinyl alcohol electrolyte and an ion diffusion coefficient of 2.8 x 10-7 cm2 s- 1, close to that in liquid electrolyte. Additionally, solid-state supercapacitors based on mesoporous carbon nanotubes exhibit a short relaxation time of 39 ms and a capac-ity retention of 93% over 10000 cycles, thus demonstrating their great potential in practical applications.

Automated summary

Researchers have developed a molten-salt-directed mesopore engineering to design carbon nanotubes that are highly accessible to gel electrolytes. These mesoporous carbon nanotubes demonstrate excellent capacitive performance and ion diffusion properties. Solid-state supercapacitors based on these carbon nanotubes exhibit short relaxation time and good capacity retention, showing great potential for practical applications.