Electrochemical Synthesis Of Conducting Polymer Nano-materials

Nanostructured conducting polymers have the features of usual conductingpolymers and special properties of nanomaterials. Thus, they have various potentialapplications in catalysis, optics, microelectronics, actuators, etc. In view of theapplication of these materials, it is important to fabricate nanostructured conductingpolymers with controllable morphology and sizes. Electrosysthesis is a convenientand effective route to obtain nanostructured conducting polymers, because thistechnique can easily control the polymerization rate and the yield of polymer bycontrolling electropolymerization conditions. In this dissertation, variousnanostructured materials of widely studied conducting polymers includingpolythiophene, polyparaphenylene, and polyaniline were fabricated. The main resultsare given as follows:First, We fabricated polythiophene film coated gold, silver, cobalt and coppernanowire arrays by successive electrochemical depositions of polythiophene andmetal into the pores of the microporous alumina membrane. The length ratio ofmetals to polythiophene is variable by controlling the charge ratio for deposition thesetwo kinds of materials. Smooth, uniform and tightly contacted metal/conductingpolymer composite nanowires were obtained. This method can be extended tofabricate nano-composites of other conducting polymers and other inorganicmaterials.Second, polyparaphenylene (PPP) nano-tube arrays were generated byelectrosynthesis of benzene in the mixed electrolyte of boron trifluoride diethyletherate, trifluoro-acetic acid and different emulsions, such as sodiumdodecyl-benzenesulfonic acid, sodium dodecane-sulfonic acid anddodecyl-benzenesulfonic acid on the surface of ITO electrode. It was found that thePPP nanotubes were formed through a micelle guided grouth route, and theirmorphology strongly depended on the size and concentration of the micelles.Last, we found that regular polyaniline nano-fiber film can be fabricated throughelectropolymerization of aniline at the interface of the water and oil. The as-grownfibers were uniform in diameter. This method differs from template and non-templatemethods in that it utilizes the speciality of polyaniline and need no orientating factorfrom outside. The formation of the fiber is influenced by the kind of the dopant. It hasbright potential application in improving the sensitivity and responding speed ofsensor due to its large specific area.