Electrocatalytic activity of polyaniline-copper composites in electrohydrogenation of p-nitroaniline

Abstract

Copper-containing composites of polyaniline were synthesized by introducing copper(II) chloride (with the reduction of copper cations with sodium borohydride and hydrazine hydrate and without it) in the oxidative polymerization of aniline (ammonium peroxydisulfate oxidant). The resulting polyaniline-copper composites were studied by IR spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The more drastic increase in the rate of hydrogenation of p-nitroaniline and its conversion (compared with those of the electrochemical process on the Cu cathode) resulted from the activation of the cathode with polyaniline composites with the copper salt, whose cations were reduced to the metal phases in the electrochemical system.