Electrochemical synthesis of electroactive poly(melamine) with mechanistic explanation and its applicability to functionalize carbon surface to prepare nanotube-nanoparticles hybrid

We report here the preparation and mechanistic explanation of a nitrogen rich platform, poly(melamine), and its application for efficient synthesis of carbon nanotube-metal nanoparticle hybrid. Poly(melamine) is electrochemically formed on the surface of a preanodized screen-printed carbon electrode (designated as SPCE*) under a suitable potential (1.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and pH (0.1 M HCl). Note that radical cation formation is the rate-determining step in melamine polymerization and an enough positive potential in highly acidic medium is essential for the formation and stabilization of radical cation. The XPS analysis indicates the generation of polymer by head-to-head coupling with -NH-NH- bonding between melamine molecules. We demonstrate that this poly(melamine)-modified electrode is helpful in loading copper nanoparticles on multiwalled carbon nanotube for hybrid formation. Since the proposed method is easy for mass production, this report opens a new methodology to functionalize the carbon surface to prepare new materials in different fields. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.