Carbon paste electrodes modified by Pt and Pt–Ni microparticles dispersed in polyindole film for electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol

Electrocatalytic activity of the Pt microparticles dispersed into polyindole (PIn) films obtained by electropolymerization on carbon paste electrodes (CPE) towards methanol oxidation in perchloric acid medium has been demonstrated and investigated using cyclic voltammetry, potentiodynamic polarization, chronoamperometry and impedance spectroscopic techniques. The results show that PIn films obtained on these electrodes serve as good host matrices for the dispersion of Pt microparticles and exhibit good catalytic activity towards the electrooxidation of methanol compared to bulk Pt and CPE modified with Pt. The morphology and composition of the modified and unmodified films were obtained using SEM and EDX techniques. The effect of scan rate, amount of Pt and concentration of methanol, on the activity of the electrode has been tested. The effect of alloying Pt with different amounts of Ni was studied and it was found that when the metals are deposited from a solution containing the metal salts in 1:1 ratio the activity towards methanol oxidation was significantly enhanced.