Electrolysis of waste water containing aniline to produce polyaniline and hydrogen with low energy consumption

Hydrogen generation from water electrolysis is attempted to be one of the replacement of sources as a clean fuel with high energy density . However, its application is limited by the high overpotential of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, hydrogen fuel is obtained from waste water by replacing OER with aniline electrochemical polymerization . Compared to the OER, the potential of aniline electro-polymerization greatly decreases 1240 mV at the current density of 30 mA cm −2 even using carbon paper electrode. Moreover, the Faradaic efficiency of hydrogen production is close to 100%. The as-prepared polyaniline demonstrates good performance as electrochemical capitative materials. This work provides efficient and lower energy consumed access to co-generate hydrogen and polyaniline in a convenient step by starting from the toxic and environmental-unfriendly wastewater.