Facile and innovation synthesis of Zn-Mn-Co-LDH/polypyrrole and its application in investigating ethanol oxidation in an alkaline medium

• Synthesis of a new Zn-Mn-Co-LDH/polypyrrole catalyst to investigate ethanol oxidation. • The main advantages are easy synthesis, low cost, and saving time, excellent stability and suitability for ethanol oxidation. • The fabricated sensor can significantly increase electrocatalytic activity toward ethanol oxidation. • The proposed sensor has a large jf/jb value and excellent stability. Overvoltage and low current are observed for ethanol electrooxidation on the surface of many unmodified electrodes. Therefore, it is desirable to use a suitable catalyst for ethanol electrooxidation to increase the current. This research introduces a new sensor to catalyze ethanol oxidation in an alkaline environment. This new Zn-Mn-Co LDH/PolyPyrrole/GCE nanocomposite sensor exhibits high catalytic activity for ethanol electrooxidation. It changes the oxidation potential of ethanol to a less positive potential. To identify this proposed sensor, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brauner Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), FT-IR spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermal analysis (TGA), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and cyclic voltammetry techniques were used. Ethanol electrooxidation was investigated by cyclic voltammetry technique. The effects of scan rate and ethanol concentration on the ethanol oxidation peak have been investigated. The proposed sensor showed long-term stability. This prepared nanocomposite can be used as an anode catalyst for ethanol fuel cells.