Ethanol electrocatalysis on gold and conducting polymer nanocomposites: A study of the kinetic parameters

The study attempts to compare the electrocatalytic effect of gold nanoparticles dispersed conjugated polymers using activation energy, Tafel slopes and reaction orders for the evaluation of their performance. A simple and rapid in situ chemical and electrochemical method was adopted for the synthesis of gold and different conducting polymers nanocomposites on electrode surfaces. The method involves the polymerization of the monomer to yield the polymer nanocomposite film with dispersed gold nanoparticles. Polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) are the four polymers studied in this work. A systematic comparison among the nanocomposites reveals that although all the conducting polymers have good catalytic activity in alkaline medium however polyaniline dispersed with gold nanoparticles has the best catalytic properties among them as evidenced by its very low activation energy, low onset potential and reproducible currents. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.