Electroconductive polymers and exfoliated graphite composites as catalysts for oxygen reduction

In present work we have investigated the reduction of oxygen at polyaniline (PANI) type electroconducting polymers (ECPs) and its composition with thermally exfoliated graphite (TEG). To explain the reasons of the catalytic activity of ECPs, a quantum-chemical modeling of ECPs and adsorption complexes of ECPs with oxygen has been performed. The calculations showed that the bond orders in chemisorbed oxygen molecules at PANI decrease by a third, and the bond length increases by more than 20% in comparison with that in a free oxygen molecule. Thus, chemisorbed oxygen molecules have fairly high degree of activation and can be readily reduced at the polymeric surface. The above phenomena have founded a practical application for development of air-metal batteries mockups with low costs PANI/TEG composite catalysts and could find application also for some types of fuel cells.