Researchers have built a high-capacity energy-storage device using a metal–organic framework (MOF) — a porous material with many desirable properties.

MOFs are networks of metal ions linked together by organic molecules, and their large surface area means they hold promise as energy-storing supercapacitors. Mircea Dincă of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and his colleagues created such a device with electrodes made only from a nickel–organic framework (Ni3(HITP)2) that has high electrical conductivity. The supercapacitor stored more energy per area than most other carbon-based devices, and retained more than 90% capacity after 10,000 cycles — on a par with commercial devices.

Such a supercapacitor could have an important role in future energy grids, the authors say.

Nature Mater. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat4766 (2016)