Electrochemical properties of poly-1-naphthylamine synthesized in the presence of ferrocenesulfonic acid

Ferrocenesulfonic acid (Fc) plays an important role in increasing the electrochemical polymerization rate of 1-naphthylamine (Nap). Poly-1-naphthylamine prepared in the presence of ferrocenesulfonic acid (PNapFc) was charaterized by FTIR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The above results confirmed that Fc could be doped in poly-1-naphthylamine (PNpa). From FTIR spectra of PNapFc, it was revealed that polymerization reaction occurred by head-to-tail mechanism. Cyclic voltammograms (CVs) show that PNapFc has a rather high electrochemical activity compared with PNap in 0.5 mol dm−3 Na2SO4 solution at pH 5.00. Particularly, both PNpa- and PNapFc-modified electrodes can catalyze the electrochemical reduction of H2O2 in the 0.1 mol dm−3 citrate buffer with pH 5.00, but the catalytic activity of PNapFc is superior to that of PNpa, which is due to that Fc enhance the charge transfer ability in PNapFc film.