Fabrication and catalytic property of an Ag@poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) yolk/shell structure

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) hollow spheres with the size ranged from 210 to 850 nm and a conductivity of 6 × 10−2 S cm−1 have been prepared via electrochemical polymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) as a soft template. Then, a novel Ag@PEDOT yolk/shell structure has been prepared simply and directly by a penetration and reduction approach. The morphology, formation, and the catalytic activity of the as-prepared Ag@PEDOT yolk/shell structure have been investigated. The experimental result shows that the as-prepared Ag@PEDOT yolk/shell structure exhibits excellent catalytic activity on reduction of p-nitrophenol. The employed approach may shed some light on preparing other noble metal@conductive polymer core/shell structure.