Pt nanoparticles supporting on polyaniline: a catalytic anode for methanol fuel cell

Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has become a significant power source due to unique properties such as high energy density and low pollution emission. One of the most important parameters for prosperous performance of DMFC is the electro-catalytic activity of the utilized anode. Pt-based catalysts are used as the most popular catalyst in DMFC. High cost, low abundance, and high poisoning of these catalysts have established challenges to the production of new types of catalytic materials. Making use of appropriate support materials for the construction of Pt-based catalysts alleviate their defects. In this regard, conductive polymers are desirable supporting materials. In this work, in reply to the mentioned challenges, we propound the synthetic method for the production of a new Pt-based catalyst by using the polyaniline (PANI) as the support. PANI is a conductive polymer with low-cost synthesis, high stability, and reversible redox properties. Herein, aniline (Ani) was used as the polymer precursor and a polymerization reaction was performed in the presence of Copper (Cu) ions as the oxidant agents. So, in this process a polymeric layer, a layer with Cu nanoparticles, a transition metal, was synthesized. The existence of Cu nanoparticles cause the excellent electro-catalytic activity. Then, electrodeposition of platinum (Pt) nanoparticles was performed by 40 consecutive cycles at a sweep rate of 50 mV.s-1 in the potential range of -0.4V to 1V vs. Ag/ AgCl in H2PtCl6 solution as the precursor. The electro-chemical performance of synthesized catalyst on the glassy carbon electrode (Pt/ Cu-PANI/ GCE) was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoampherometric (CA) methods. The obtained catalytic activity and durability exhibit Pt/ Cu-PANI is a superior candidate for modification of electrode surface in methanol fuel cell.