Synthesis of Pentaaniline and Development of Platinum Nanocatalyst for Efficient Methanol Oxidation Reaction
Apparao Thota, Kiran Kumar K, Kesavarao Sykam, Ravikumar BandaruABSTRACT
The emeraldine‐base form of pentaaniline (PANI) was prepared via chemical oxidative oligomerization of p ‐phenylenediamine and diphenylamine using ammonium persulfate as the oxidizing agent. Owing to its high surface area and favorable electrical conductivity, the synthesized PANI was utilized for the first time as a support material for the fabrication of a Pt‐based nano electrocatalyst, with formic acid serving as the reducing agent. Both PANI and the Pt/PANI nanocomposite were extensively characterized using FT‐IR, UV–vis spectroscopy, ESI‐MS, XRD, FE‐SEM, EDX, TGA, TEM, XPS, and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrical conductivity of PANI doped with 1 M HCl was determined to be 2.5 × 10 − 4 S cm − 1 . Electrochemical studies were conducted in 2 M H 2 SO 4 revealed three well‐defined redox peaks, consistent with the behavior of polyaniline. The catalytic performance of the Pt/PANI nano electrocatalyst was evaluated for the methanol oxidation reaction Pt/PANI (2:1) nano electrocatalyst exhibited a peak current density of 7.0 × 10 − 5 A cm − 2 at 0.7 V, whereas Pt/C (10:1) catalyst showed a lower peak current density of 3.6 × 10 − 5 A cm − 2 at 0.69 V. These results demonstrate that the Pt/PANI (2:1) nano electrocatalyst possesses superior electrocatalytic activity toward methanol oxidation compared with the conventional Pt/C (10:1) catalyst.