Incorporation Of Ferrocenesulfoniccarboxylic Acid Into Polyaniline Film: Synthesis And Applications

Polyaniline has attracted great interest in recent years due to his environmental stability and ease of synthesis. It is now known that the properties of polyaniline can be improved by changing experimental conditions. Our work that focuses attention on polyaniline incorporated with ferrocenesulfoniccarboxylic acid has mainly three parts. In the first part, electrochemical polymerization of aniline in the presence of ferrrocenesulfonicarboxylic acid (SO3HFcCOOH) is studied and the results show that SO3HFcCOOH protonates polyaniline during electrodeposition of the film. Also the incorporation of SO3HFcCOOH is confirmed by IR, UV-Visible spectra and theoretical studies. The action of ammonia on the polymer shows the influence of the incorporated substance. The second part corresponds to the application of the polyaniline film synthesized (PANI-Fc) in the electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol (CH3OH). This reaction is important in view of its application in fuel-cells. It is found that CH3OH adsorbs on PANI-Fc electrode before its electrocatalytic oxidation and the methanol oxidation can start at 2M CH3OH. At last, another application of the film, the electrocatalytic oxidation of theophylline, is studied with cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Its use as a therapeutic agent necessitates close study because the metabolism of theophylline varies between individuals. PANI-Fc electrode exhibits an enhancement of the current response compared to a bare glassy carbon electrode in pH 6 phosphate solution. The calibration curve is linear with a detection limit of 13.3μM when CV is used whereas it is 5.14μM in the case of DPV. The results show that the determination of theophylline in green tea is possible and the DPV is more sensitive than CV.