A short review on metal phosphide based 2D nanomaterials for high performance electrochemical supercapacitors.

Energy conversion and storage is the key avenue of research as the energy demand is growing with the life style and standard of living. Supercapacitors are important class of devices which convert and store chemical energy into electrical. Batteries differ with these devices with their capacity to deliver the stored energy. To tune performance of these devices, focusing on design of the electrode material is the key. Nano-materials, especially 2D with one or few atoms thick, contribute in a peculiar way by exhibiting unusual characteristics in this direction. Also, they exhibit many special properties such as highly chemically active edge sites relative to basal planes, high mechanical and chemical stability, etc. This review discusses fundamentals of supercapacitors and relevance of 2D nanomaterials especially metal phosphides as their electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]