Electropolymerization of m-aminophenol on expanded graphite and its electrochemical properties

The electrochemical polymerization of m-aminophenol on expanded graphite has been carried out in acidic solution using repeated potential cycling between −0.4 and 1.6 V (vs. SCE). The electrolytic solution consisted of 0.01 M m-aminophenol and 0.3 M H2SO4. A blue film, i.e. poly (m-aminophenol) (PmAP) was formed on the expanded graphite, and it has good electrochemical activity in solution with low pH value. The polymerization behavior of m-aminophenol on the expanded graphite electrode is quite different from that of m-aminophenol on metal or glassy carbon electrodes, and the functional groups on the surface of the expanded graphite play an important role in the autocatalytic polymerization of m-aminophenol. The synthesized PmAP was characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), FT-IR and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Based on FT-IR, the structure of PmAP is proposed in this paper.