Novel electroactive nanocomposite of POAP for highly efficient energy storage and electrocatalyst: Electrosynthesis...

In this work, we presented facile route for fabrication of poly ortho aminophenol (POAP) POAP and POAP/ZnO nanocomposite on the surface of the working electrode. The fractal dimension of nanocomposite films in the presence of counter ions was investigated. Surface morphology of the composite film was studied by surface microscopy techniques (SEM). The presence of ZnO in the films was confirmed by EDS analysis. The results indicate that a strong interaction exist at the interface of POAP and nano-ZnO. Different electrochemical methods including galvanostatic charge discharge experiments and cyclic voltammetry have been applied to study the system performance. This work introduces new nanocomposite materials for electrochemical redox capacitors with such advantages as the ease of synthesis, high active surface area and stability in an aqueous electrolyte. Furthermore, comparison with a Ni-POAP the Ni-POAP/ZnO electrode shows a better catalytic performance for the electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol in alkaline solution. It is observed that the in the presence of ZnO nanoparticles current density of electro-oxidation of methanol is almost constant in 400 cycles due to the stability of electrocatalyst in this cycle number and indicating that methanol reacted with the surface and no poisoning effect on the surface was observed.