A general potentiodynamic approach for red phosphorus and sulfur nanodot incorporation on reduced graphene oxide sheets: metal-free and binder-free electrodes for supercapacitor and hydrogen evolution activities

Abstract

A general potentiodynamic strategy, for the first time, was proposed to incorporate red phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) nanodots on reduced graphene oxide sheets (rGO) on a carbon fabric support. Uniformly embedded nanodots on rGO sheets were visualized using transmission electron microscopy. The as-prepared metal-free and binder-free electrodes can serve for both supercapacitors and the hydrogen evolution reaction. In particular, P nanodot incorporated rGO demonstrates a high specific capacitance of 334.2 F g⁻¹, of which 99.2% is retained after 10 000 repeated charge/discharge cycles. Furthermore, this material delivers a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² at an overpotential of −0.44 V versus RHE for the hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic medium.