Electrosynthesis of polyquinone nanowires with dispersed platinum nanoparticles toward formic acid oxidation

Conducting polymer nanostructuring enables a substantial improvement of many electro-catalytic processes, e.g., formic acid (HCOOH, FA) electro-oxidation. In this case, a stainless steel (SS) electrode is first modified with poly(1-amino-9,10-anthraquinone-co-o-phenylenediamine) (COP) and then, by means of a template that can be chemically removed, poly(1-amino-9,10-anthraquinone) nanowires (P1AAQnw) are electro-synthesized; this procedure has allowed the effective FA electro-catalytic oxidation generating adsorbed CO, which is quickly converted to CO2. Subsequently, when platinum nanoparticles (dispersed by electro-chemical techniques) are also incorporated on the polymeric nanowires, oxidation peaks are observed at ca. 1000 mV, with a current increase up to fourfold. In this way, the method provides a highly reproducible nanostructured electrode that is prepared solely by electro-chemical techniques offering promising results for FA electro-catalytic oxidation.