Electrodeposition of films of individual 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-aminophenyl)porphyrin metal complexes and their composite for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction

• The effectiveness of carbonaceous materials can be improved by modifying the electrode surface with polyporphyrin metal complexes. • The polyporphyrins can be optained by the electrochemical method. • The polyporphyrin films obtained on a glassy carbon electrode are catalytically active in the oxygen electroreduction reaction. • The composite of two metal complexes has a higher catalytic activity as compared to films based on individual porphyrins, which indicates a synergistic effect. Carbon-based materials are common and quite promising for such industrial applications as power generation using electrochemical and electrocatalytic processes and can be successfully used as electrode substrates. The effectiveness of carbonaceous materials can be improved by modifying the electrode surface with phthalocyanine and porphyrin metal complexes possessing electrocatalytic properties. In this work, polyporphyrin films were obtained on a glassy carbon electrode from individual 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-aminophenyl)porphyrin metal complexes and a composite of two Fe and Mn metal complexes. The polymerization was carried out by the electrochemical method. The results of the evaluation of the polyporphyrin catalytic activity in oxygen electroreduction reactions achieved by different methods are in good agreement with each other and indicate higher catalytic activity of the composite of the two metal complexes than the films of individual porphyrins, which indicates the synergistic effect.