Conductive and porous nitrogen-rich materials have great potential as supercapacitor electrode materials. The exceptional efficiency of such compounds, however, is dependent on their larger surface area and the level of nitrogen doping. To address these issues, we synthesized a porous covalent triazine framework (An-CTFs) based on 9,10-dicyanoanthracene (An-CN) units through an ionothermal reaction in the presence of different molar ratios of molten zinc chloride (ZnCl₂) at 400 and 500 °C, yielding An-CTF-10-400, An-CTF-20-400, An-CTF-10-500, and An-CTF-20-500 microporous materials. According to N₂ adsorption–desorption analyses (BET), these An-CTFs produced exceptionally high specific surface areas ranging from 406–751 m²·g⁻¹. Furthermore, An-CTF-10-500 had a capacitance of 589 F·g⁻¹, remarkable cycle stability up to 5000 cycles, up to 95% capacity retention, and strong CO₂ adsorption capacity up to 5.65 mmol·g⁻¹ at 273 K. As a result, our An-CTFs are a good alternative for both electrochemical energy storage and CO₂ uptake.

Nitroxide polymer brushes were covalently patterned on flexible conducting substrates via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization and microcontact printing. As a cathode of organic radical batteries, the nitroxide polymer brushes prevent the nitroxide polymer from dissolving into electrolyte solvents, which improves the cycle-life performance of batteries.

Nitroxide polymer brushes for thin-film electrodes for organic radical batteries are synthesized via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). Patterned nitroxide polymer brush thin-film electrodes are fabricated by microcontact printing. The thickness of the polymer brushes is proportional to the polymerization time of SI-ATRP. The results of cyclic voltammetry and AC impedance indicate that when the polymer brush is thicker than 55 nm, the poly(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-4-yl methacrylate) (PTMPM) segment at the bottom of the brush is not sufficiently oxidized to yield a nitroxide polymer brush during a 10 min oxidation time. Electrochemical and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results also show that an increase in the oxidation time could oxidize the PTMPM segment at the bottom of the brush but results in over-oxidation of the brush at the top, which decreases the energy capacity of the polymer brush. Moreover, the energy capacity of the polymer brush electrode for organic radical batteries is determined to be approximately 94.0 mA h g⁻¹ at a discharge rate of 20 C; its cycle-life performance exhibits 97.3% retention after 100 cycles. Atomic force microscopy results also confirm that after 100 cycles the surface morphology of the polymer brush electrodes does not show obvious changes, indicating that the polymer brush resists dissolution of polymers into electrolytes.