Investigations of polyaniline–platinum composites prepared by sodium borohydride reduction

Two procedures were applied for the preparation of polyaniline (PANI)–Pt composites in aqueous solutions using sodium borohydride as the reducing agent. The first one involved reduction of Pt ions originating from PtCl4 conducted in the presence of PANI. The second was a two-step method in which doping of PANI with Pt-containing anions was followed by their reduction. The composites containing various amounts of Pt were obtained. They were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron and IR spectroscopies. This allowed to establish differences in the efficiency of both methods of composite preparation. It was also found that the composites show mainly redox activity in catalytic isopropyl alcohol conversion.