Département de chimie moléculaire

It is important to design a functionalization scheme for carbon nanotubes that preserves their outstanding proprieties, while adding new proprieties, thereby enabling their integration in fuel cell applications. In the present work, we describe the prodn. of a non-covalently attached network of porphyrins to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) sidewalls. The approach is based on $π$-$π$ stacking interactions of pyrene-modified metalloporphyrins onto MWCNT sidewalls. Two configurations of MWCNT-porphyrin hybrid electrodes were both electrochem. characterized and tested under alk. conditions. Pyrene-functionalized rhodium deuteroporphyrin (Rh(DP)pyr2), was used as an anode in the electrocatalytic oxidn. of glucose and pyrene-functionalized tetracarboxyphenyl cobalt porphyrin (Co(TCPP)pyr4) was itself used as a cathode in the electrocatalytic redn. of oxygen. Both electrodes were integrated into a glucose fuel cell system leading to a max. power output of 0.9(±0.10) mW cm-2. Compared to alternative system approaches, pyrene-modified porphyrin hybrid electrodes and their corresponding fuel cell devices exhibited higher activity, power output, and long term stability. [on SciFinder(R)]