Metal–organic frameworks-derived hollow octadecahedron nanocages for supercapacitors and wearable self-powered tactile stress sensor

[Display omitted] •Metal–organic frameworks-derived octadecahedron nanocages is reported.•The oxides nanocage delivers a capacitance of 948 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1.•An asymmetric self-powered elastic-electrochemical stress sensor is designed.•The sensor exhibits stable and sensitive current responses to the applied stress. A facile hollow octadecahedron nanocage structure derived by Co/Mn metal–organic framework is proposed by a controlled annealing method. Owing to the hybrid metal oxides in the peculiar polyhedral nanostructure, abundant active sites are exhibited on their surfaces, which carries high energy storage property with a capacitance of 948 F g−1 and achieves a high energy density of 32.90 W h kg−1 (250 W kg−1). Combining the nanocages with an elastic naturally-dried graphene aerogel in an asymmetric structure, a unique supercapacitive stress sensor is designed. Just relying the stored electric energy without extra power sources, the self-powered sensor can sensitively sense the stress of 0.2–10 N, by transforming mechanical signal to electrical signal in elastic-electrochemical mechanism. This offers a new opportunity for metal–organic frameworks derived nanoarchitecture and future applications in wearable elastic-electrochemical stress sensor systems.