Abstract: In this paper, polyaniline-palladium nanocomposites, a kind of fuel cell catalysts in the system of formic acid, were successfully prepared by the method of in-situ reduction, in which palladium nitrate was used as the precursor of palladium nanoparticles and polyaniline (PANI) as the reductant and supporter of resulting palladium nanoparticles. The difference between doping PANI and dedoping PANI was studied and the final products were characterized using FT-IR, UV-Vis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM and cyclic voltammetry(CV). The CV results suggested that the composites had the capability of catalyzing formic acid, while the dedoping one showed better performance than the doping one.

Key words: In-situ reduction method, polyaniline, palladium nanoparticles, nanocomposites