A sugar derived carbon-red phosphorus composite for oxygen evolution reaction and supercapacitor activities

Abstract The development of low-cost and highly active electrode material is essential for the growth of renewable energy conversion and storage technologies. In this work, a composite of carbon-red phosphorous has been synthesized using a simple chemical reaction of sugar with sulfuric acid in presence of red phosphorous followed by carbonization. The as-prepared carbon-red phosphorous composite displays oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity with an overpotential of 1.69 V vs. RHE to achieve 10 mA cm-2 current density compared to pristine carbon (1.81 V vs. RHE). Moreover, a symmetrical supercapacitor has been constructed, which delivers a specific capacitance of 105.8 F g-1 and retains 100% of its initial capacitance after repeating 3000 voltammogram cycles. This simple and low-cost preparation of carbon-red phosphorous composite from sugar can open up exciting opportunities for energy conversion and storage applications.