Redox-conducting polymers

Functionalized conducting monomers can be deposited on electrode surfaces aiming for covalent attachment or entrapment of sensor components. Electrically conductive polymers (qv), eg, polypyrrole, polyaniline [25233-30-17, and polythiophene/23 2JJ-J4-j5y, can be formed at the anode by electrochemical polymerization. For integration of bioselective compounds or redox polymers into conductive polymers, functionalization of conductive polymer films, whether before or after polymerization, is essential. In Figure 7, a schematic representation of an amperomethc biosensor where the enzyme is covalendy bound to a functionalized conductive polymer, eg, P-amino (polypyrrole) or poly[A/-(4-aminophenyl)-2,2 -dithienyl]pyrrole, is shown. Entrapment of ferrocene-modified GOD within polypyrrole is shown in Figure 7. 

This article addresses the synthesis, properties, and appHcations of redox dopable electronically conducting polymers and presents an overview of the field, drawing on specific examples to illustrate general concepts. There have been a number of excellent review articles (1—13). Metal particle-filled polymers, where electrical conductivity is the result of percolation of conducting filler particles in an insulating matrix (14) and ionically conducting polymers, where charge-transport is the result of the motion of ions and is thus a problem of mass transport (15), are not discussed. 

The flow of a current through an electrochemical system demonstrates the main difference between material based on conducting polymers and all the other industrial nonconducting polymers conducting polymers oxidize and reduce electrochemically in a reverse way, as do metals or redox couples ... 

Even when they have a partial crystallinity, conducting polymers swell and shrink, changing their volume in a reverse way during redox processes a relaxation of the polymeric structure has to occur, decreasing the crystallinity to zero percent after a new cycle. In the literature, different relaxation theories (Table 7) have been developed that include structural aspects at the molecular level magnetic or mechanical properties of the constituent materials at the macroscopic level or the depolarization currents of the materials. 

It is now 20 years since the first report on the electrochemistry of an electrode coated with a conducting polymer film.1 The thousands of subsequent papers have revealed a complex mosaic of behaviors arising from the multiple redox potentials and the large changes in conductivity and ion-exchange properties that accompany their electrochemistry. 

Because of these important differences between conducting and redox polymers, this chapter is restricted to conducting polymers, which... 

The stoichiometry of the redox reactions of conducting polymers (n and m in reactions 1 and 2) is quite variable. Under the most widely used conditions, polypyrroles and polythiophenes can be reversibly oxidized to a level of one hole per ca. 3 monomer units (i.e., a degree of oxidation, n, of ca. 0.3).7 However, this limit is dictated by the stability of the oxidized film under the conditions employed (Section V). With particularly dry and unreactive solvents, degrees of oxidation of 0.5 can be reversibly attained,37 and for poly-(4,4 -dimethoxybithiophene), a value of n = 1 has been reported.38 Although much fewer data are available for n-doping, it appears to involve similar stoichiometries [i.e., m in Eq. (2) is typically ca. 0.3].34,39"41 Polyanilines can in principle be reversibly p-doped to one... 

Figure 4 compares cyclic voltammograms for a redox polymer (poly-[Fe(5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline)3]3+/2+)91 and p-doping and undoping of a conducting polymer (polypyrrole).92 The voltammogram for the redox... 

Figure 4. (A) Cyclic voltammograms over a range of scan rates for a redox polymer (poly-[Fe 5-amino-1,10-phenanthrotme)3]3+/>)91 and (B) p-doping and undoping of a conducting polymer (polypyrrole) (B). [(A) Reprinted from X. Ren and P. O. Pickup, Strong dependence of the election hopping rate in poly-tris(5-amino-1,10-phenan-throline)iron(HI/II) on the nature of the counter-anion J. Electroanal. Chem. 365, 289-292,1994, with kind permission from Elsevier Sciences S.A.]...

Although a wide variety of wave shapes have been observed for conducting polymers, most differ from a redox polymer response in the same way as highlighted above for polypyrrole. Since Heinze7 has discussed the origins of these differences in some detail, the discussion here will be brief. 

There has therefore been much interest in the mediation of redox reactions in solution by conducting polymer-modified electrodes. 

On the other hand, Doblhofer218 has pointed out that since conducting polymer films are solvated and contain mobile ions, the potential drop occurs primarily at the metal/polymer interface. As with a redox polymer, electrons move across the film because of concentration gradients of oxidized and reduced sites, and redox processes involving solution species occur as bimolecular reactions with polymer redox sites at the polymer/solution interface. This model was found to be consistent with data for the reduction and oxidation of a variety of species at poly(7V-methylpyrrole). This polymer has a relatively low maximum conductivity (10-6 - 10 5 S cm"1) and was only partially oxidized in the mediation experiments, which may explain why it behaved more like a redox polymer than a typical conducting polymer. 

One major reason for the diversity of views on the redox states of conducting polymers is the variety of po ible shapes and forms of potentiodynamic current-voltage curves, even when the materials are prepared under more or less similar conditions. 

Intensive research on the electrocatalytic properties of polymer-modified electrodes has been going on for many years Until recently, most known coatings were redox polymers. Combining redox polymers with conducting polymers should, in principle, further improve the electrocatalytic activity of such systems, as the conducting polymers are, in addition, electron carriers and reservoirs. One possibility of intercalating electroactive redox centres in the conducting polymer is to incorporate redoxactive anions — which act as dopants — into the polymer. Most research has been done on PPy, doped with inter alia Co 96) RyQ- 297) (--q. and Fe-phthalocyanines 298,299) Co-porphyrines Evidently, in these... 

The discussion on the capacitive charging of conductive polymers continues 362 - 364) poiiowing Feldberg s hypothesis the capacitive charge should be proportional to the amount of oxidizable film whereby it is assumed that oxidation of the film occurs at one defined redox potential All available experimental findings are unequivocal evidence that the latter assumption is wrong. In a recent... 

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