Synthesis of Cu-doped polyaniline nanocomposites (nano Cu@PANI) via the H2O2-promoted oxidative polymerization of aniline with copper salt

[Display omitted] •First report on the synthesis of cheap metal nanoparticles on PANI via an environment-friendly method.•Low cost of the materials fabrication.•Green procedures free of the generation of solid waste.•Highly dispersed copper nanoparticles on PANI support.•Overwhelmingly better catalytic activities in CN coupling reactions than the materials prepared via conventional method. Cheap metals, such as Cu, can not catalyze aerobic oxidative polymerization of anilines because of insufficient electric potential differences between their high and low valent ions. Therefore, conventionally, preparation of cheap metal nanoparticles supported on polyanilines (nano M@PANIs) inevitablly requires chemical oxidants such as (NH4)2S2O8 that generate solid wastes. In this work, we found that, by using H2O2 as the green oxidant, nano Cu@PANI could be easily prepared without solid waste generation. In the material, copper nanoparticles highly dispersed on the waxberry-like nano PANI support and possessed overwhelmingly better catalytic activities in C-N coupling reactions than Cu@PANIs prepared via (NH4)2S2O8 oxidation method. This should be the first example for the synthesis of cheap metal nanoparticles on PANI via an environment-friendly method and might be a breakthrough in the field of nano M@PANIs investigation to expand the application scopes of these materials for low cost and green features.