Screen-printed electrodes based on hybrids of poly(ortho-ethoxyaniline) and reduced graphene oxide

Abstract

Screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) based on hybrids of the conducting polymer poly(ortho-ethoxyaniline) (POEA), graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were produced and characterized. The SPEs were produced from conductive inks based on graphite and alkyd resin and were modified with hybrids of POEA with GO, and rGO. The hybrids POEA-GO and POEA-rGO were produced by chemical polymerization of o-ethoxyaniline (orthophenitidine) in 1.0 mol L−1 with GO or rGO dispersed into the monomer solution. The SPEs were modified by the replacement of 5 % in mass of graphite by 5 % in mass of POEA-GO or POEA-rGO hybrids. The hybrids were characterized by Raman and FT-IR spectroscopies and XRD analyses. The modified SPEs, SPE/POEA, SPE/POEA-GO, and SPE/POEA-rGO were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and by cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The electrodes based on the rGO hybrid, SPE/POEA-rGO, showed a significant reduction of the charge transfer resistance obtained by EIS by a factor of 3 compared with SPE/POEA, from 4.62 kΩ to 1.48 kΩ, without changing the redox behaviour of POEA. The methodology used to produce SPE/POEA-rGO is a simple, effective, scalable, and low-cost alternative to produce POEA-based electrodes for applications such as in electrochemical sensors and charge storage devices.