Abstract
The substituted pyrrole monomer, N–(2–cyanoethyl)pyrrole, was electropolymerised in a 70% water and 30% ethanol solution with ClO4– and H2PO4– as the dopant species to give nanowires at short electropolymerisation times and microwires at longer deposition periods. On adding toluene to the electropolymerisation solution, hollow microtubes were formed. This was attributed to the adsorption of toluene droplets at the electrode surface which served to separate the dopants from the monomer, with the monomer being highly soluble in the toluene droplet and the inorganic dopants soluble in the water/ethanol mixture. As a result electropolymerisation was confined to the toluene-water/ethanol interface. These polymer systems exhibit redox activity with the oxidation wave centred at about 0.40 V vs SCE, and the broader reduction wave positioned between 0.75 V and 0.25 V vs SCE. Although N-substitution reduces the conductivity of the polymer, various copper deposits, including cubes, leaves and hierarchical structures were deposited at the microwires and microtubes using high overpotentials. The hierarchical structures were wrapped around the microtubes at considerable distances, typically 3–4 µm, from the substrate.
Highlights
Conducting polymers, polypyrrole, have attracted considerable interest in recent years as they are prepared using chemical polymerisation or electropolymerisation and readily combined with other materials, such as carbon nanotubes [1], graphene [2], graphitic carbon nitride [3] and various metal or metal oxide nano particles to give conducting hybrid materials with interesting properties [4,5]
In this paper, which is a continuation of our previous work to give open and closed N–substituted polypyrrole microstructures [35,38], we show that N–(2–cyanoethyl) pyrrole can be readily electropolymerised to give both nanowires, microwires and microtubes
In this study it is shown that PPyEtCN can be formed in nanowire, microwire and microtube morphologies and further metallisation of the polymer can be achieved through copper electrodeposition
Summary
Conducting polymers, polypyrrole, have attracted considerable interest in recent years as they are prepared using chemical polymerisation or electropolymerisation and readily combined with other materials, such as carbon nanotubes [1], graphene [2], graphitic carbon nitride [3] and various metal or metal oxide nano particles to give conducting hybrid materials with interesting properties [4,5]. This copper metallisation has the potential to increase the applications of these substituted polypyrrole systems
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