Preparation of free-standing Au/thiolation poly (phthalazinone ether ketone) nanofibrous membrane as a stable electrocatalyst towards glycerol oxidation

Novel thiolation poly (phthalazinone ether ketone) (PPEK-SH) nanofibrous membrane (NFM) was successfully fabricated via grafting and electrospinning. The PPEK-SH NFM with high glass transition temperature (324.4 °C), robust tensile strength (12.48 MPa), high porosity (89.5%) and superior chemical resistance was employed as support of Au nanoparticles (NPs) for preparing electrocatalyst . Au NPs were deposited on the NFM via electroless plating and characterized by SEM, EDX , TEM and XRD . The as-prepared Au/PPEK-SH NFM inherited the excellent properties of PPEK-SH NFM and good conductivity of Au, thereby was successfully used as a free-standing electrocatalyst without resorting to any conductive support. The free-standing NFM exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards glycerol oxidation with high oxidation peak of 74.2 mA cm −2 and low onset potential of −0.34 V. More importantly, benefiting from the strong chemical interaction between Au and -SH, Au/PPEK-SH NFM presented an incredible stability during the process of glycerol electrooxidation. Only 2.7% decrease of the peak current density was observed after 100 cycles of experiments, indicating that the free-standing electrocatalyst had great potential for long-term use. This work may provide a new approach for the development of stable free-standing electrocatalyst based on electrospun nanofibers in the application of direct alcohol fuel cells.