Vol 53, No 1 (2017)

Conducting redox polymers (CRPs) constitute a promising class of materials for the development of organic matter based batteries with the potential to overcome the main limitations connected to this type of rechargeable battery systems including low conductivity and dissolution problems. In this report we show that the potential of quinones can be effectively tuned into the conducting region of polypyrrole (PPy), both in water based solutions and in acetonitrile, which is a prerequisite for profitable combination of the two units. We also present a device where both anode and cathode are made from PPy substituted with different quinone pendant groups and where good rate performance is achieved without any conductivity additives thus providing support for the hypothesized synergetic effect of a conducting polymer backbone and a covalently attached redox active pendant group. This device constitutes, to the best of our knowledge, the first all-CRP based battery reported to date.

Efficient synthesis of silver nanoparticles stabilized by cetyltrimethylammonium cations (Ag@CTA⁺) is carried out in aqueous medium by methylviologen-mediated electroreduction of silver chloride nanospheres stabilized by surface-active CTA⁺ cations (AgCl@CTA⁺, diameter ~330 nm), on a glassy carbon electrode at potentials of the MV²⁺/MV^•+ redox couple. The nanospheres AgCl@CTA⁺ can be reduced immediately on the electrode at a low rate and the resulting metal is deposited on the electrode. In the mediated reduction, the metal is not deposited on the cathode but the quantitative reduction of AgCl to Ag@CTA⁺ nanoparticles proceeds completely in solution volume at the theoretical charge. In aqueous solution, the nanoparticles are positively charged (electrokinetic (zeta) potential is +74.6 mV), their characteristic absorption maximum is at 423 nm and the average hydrodynamic diameter is 77 nm. Isolated Ag@CTACl nanoparticles have the size of 39 ± 15 nm. The preferential form of metal nanoparticles is sphere with the diameter of 34 ± 24 nm; nanorods are also obtained in small amounts (4%); the average size of metal grains is 8–16 nm.

Three alternative methods were developed for the synthesis of modifying palladium–polypyrrole layers on the surface of an inert electrode. Their electrocatalytic activity toward formaldehyde under inert atmosphere was checked. All the suggested methods are one-stage and allow synthesis of a film on the electrode surface from a solution containing a palladium salt and pyrrole in the absence of other active reagents. The electrochemical methods (potentiodynamic and double cathodic and anodic pulses techniques) in an aqueous medium give films with poorly reproducible electrocatalytic properties, while the chemical redox synthesis affords films with reproducibly high electroactivity toward methylene glycolate.

Formation of an electroactive composite based on graphene oxide and poly-o-phenylenediamine (PPD) was studied. Electron absorption spectra were used to confirm formation of a strong chemical bond at a prolonged contact of unreduced graphene oxide on a conducting support (glassy carbon, SnO₂) and o-phenylenediamine monomer solution. Here, graphene oxide is partially reduced and oxidation and partial polymerization of o-phenylenediamine starts. It is shown that electrochemical oxidation of the obtained composite under the conditions of cyclic voltammetry results in the further polymerization of o-phenylenediamine bound to graphene oxide; here, reduction of graphene oxide continues, and at much lower cathodic potentials than in the absence of o-phenylenediamine. Morphology of the obtained composite was studied using the AFM technique. PPD embedded into the composite structure does not allow nanosheets of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to corrugate and imparts the morphology of the composite the shape of globules with a clearly pronounced structure. As a result, the RGO–PPD composite was obtained that demonstrated pronounced electroactivity in a wider range of potentials than in the case of nonmodified PPD.

Proton-conducting membranes based on sulfonated polynaphthoyleneimide (PNI) and polytriazole (PTA) are synthesized that can be used in portable hydrogen–air fuel cells (HAFC). Membrane–electrode assemblies (MEAs) based on sulfonated PNI and PTA membranes in individual HAFC manifested power and voltammetric characteristics exceeding the characteristics of MEA based on the commercial Nafion-212 membrane. Thus, the current density of 320 mA cm^–2 and the power density of 160 mW cm^–2 are obtained at the room temperature with no pressure or gas humidification at the voltage of 0.5 V. Also activity of the oxygen electroreduction Pt–Fe/C (30 wt % of metals in total) catalyst synthesized on the basis of coordination compounds is tested in MEA HAFC. It is shown that the values of power for MEAs with the cathodic Pt–Fe/C catalyst at the voltage of 0.5 V, at the room temperature, without additional pressure and gas humidification considerably exceed the corresponding values for MEAs with the commercial E-TEK 20% Pt/C catalyst.

The electrochemical oxidation of thrombin on the surface of carbon screen printed electrodes was studied. The electrochemical activity of thrombin was predicted, using bioinformation analysis, based on the data about the electrochemical properties of amino acids. The number of potentially electroactive amino acid residues, namely, tyrosine (Tyr), tryptophan (Trp), cysteine (Cys), histidine (His), methionine (Met), and cystine (Cys-Cys) located on the protein surface and orientated by their electroactive groups toward the electrode surface, i.e., accessible for electrochemical oxidation was calculated. The theoretical data were confirmed experimentally by cyclic and square-wave voltammetry. The available data on the protein structure allowed us to attribute the recorded electrochemical signals of thrombin oxidation to certain types of amino acid residue: the oxidation peak with a potential maximum at 0.7–0.8 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) was attributed to the oxidation of the Trp and Tyr residues; the wave in the range 1.0–1.2 V, to the oxidation of His; and the wave at 1.2–1.5 V, to the oxidation of Met and Cys-Cys. The electroanalysis based on the oxidation peak of the Tyr and Trp amino acid residues allowed to detect thrombin up to the concentration of 10^–7 M. The suggested strategy for predicting the electrochemical activity can be used for investigating the properties of many other proteins and peptides and serve as a basis for their quantitative determination when developing various sensor and biosensor devices.

For the flow-by porous electrodes, which differ in thickness, specific surface area, solution flow rate, and a ratio between the phase conductivities, the conditions providing the limiting-current mode over the entire electrode surface at nearly 100% current efficiency are determined using the method of successive refinement of total current and profile of its distribution along the solution flow. The used values of electrode thickness L are compared with available estimates for the limiting thickness of porous electrode L_lim derived for the ideal limiting-current mode and calculated using real values of the width of the limiting-current plateau of overall polarization curve, solution conductivity, and the diffusion limiting current in the zone of solution input into the electrode. It is found that these values are close to each other in all cases. The largest error of estimation of L_lim does not exceed 10% indicating that it can be used for preliminary estimation of the conditions for reaching the limiting-current mode for the flow porous electrodes of this type.