Gravimetric ex Situ Empirical Kinetics

Empirical kinetics are useful if they allow us to develop chemical models of interfacial reactions from which we can design experimental conditions of synthesis to obtain thick films of conducting polymers having properties tailored for specific applications. Even when those properties are electrochemical, the coated electrode has to be extracted from the solution of synthesis, rinsed, and then immersed in a new solution in which the electrochemical properties are studied. So only the polymer attached to the electrode after it is rinsed is useful for applications. Only this polymer has to be considered as the final product of the electrochemical reaction of synthesis from the point of view of polymeric applications. 

This means that we can follow the empirical kinetics of the electropolymerization process, at a constant overpotential (Fig. 6), by tracking the weight of the rinsed and dried polymer film,37 41 as we do in homogeneous polymerization processes of conducting or nonconducting poly- 

Reaction Orders Related to Rp - k [monomer]a[electrolyte]p as Kinetic Equation 

Reaction orders, a and 0, related to the empirical polymerization rate Rf-k [mono-merJa(elcctrolytc/ obtained from  

First row electrical charges consumed during polymerization. 

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