Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study of electron transfer at poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) containing gold nanoparticles coating

Abstract

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used for characterization of electron transfer in various redox probes, such as the redox couple ferrocyanide-ferricyanide, ferrocene, ferrocenemethanol, and the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) conducting polymer containing gold nanoparticles. The PEDOT coating was deposited onto platinum (Pt) and glassy carbon (GC) electrodes by galvanostatic electrochemical polymerization from an aqueous solution containing 10–2 M EDOT and 10–1 M LiClO4 as supporting electrolyte. The PEDOT-Au nanoparticles composite coating was prepared by droplet deposition of Au nanoparticles on top of the Pt/PEDOT and GC/PEDOT modified electrodes. The pure PEDOT and PEDOT-Au nanoparticles composite coatings were investigated using EIS and cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 10–1 M LiClO4 solution containing various redox probes. The impedance spectra were recorded at the formal redox potential of the redox probes. The charge transfer resistance (Rct), solution resistance (Rs), exchange current density (i0), standard rate constant (k0), and double-layer capacitance (Cdl) were calculated from the EIS data.