Facile fabrication of hollow polyaniline/carbon nanofibers-coated platinum nanohybrid composite electrode as improved anode electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation

Abstract

Electrochemically active platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) on carbon nanofibers (CNF) with electron-conducting polyaniline (PANi) nanocomposite fabricated by in situ electrodeposition using cyclic voltammetry on glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The bridging between the Pt NPs and CNF with the occurrence of platinum nitride (Pt–N) bonding and π–π bonding demonstrated the stability of PANi. Structural geometry and morphological view authenticates the successful formation of GCE/PANi-CNF-Pt electrocatalyst. To investigate the electrocatalytic performance of the synthesized nanocomposite, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronoamperometry methods were used in this work. As a result of π–π and electrostatic bonding, the prepared PANi is found to be wrapped with CNF and Pt NPs facilitates in efficient and rapid electron transfer pathway with good stability. Overall, electrochemically active GCE/PANi-CNF-Pt catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic properties and promises potential applications in DMFCs. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.