Why Modifications with RPs

In subsequent years, electropolymerization was definitely the established procedure. Polymerization by cathodic reduction, even exploiting redox mediation at the electrode, has been carried out on a wide series of Fe(II), Ru(II), and Os(II) vinyl-containing complexes based on differently substituted pyridine, and the relevant polymerization mechanism was extensively discussed in the same article [13]. An element of complexity of the RPs electrochemical growth hes in the presence, in the monomer, of additional electroactive groups. 

The first studies are excellently reviewed by R. W. Murray [14,15], and progress in the field was marked by subsequent books [1,2, 16]. 

We only cite here Andrieux and Saveant [17] as the start of a list of excellent theoretical studies carried out by the Paris school, paralleling the experimental work on the issue. They constitute a prosecution of the huge work made in previous years for simpler systems that only consider the solution phase and the unmodified electrode, the electrode surface eventually adsorbing species involved in the charge transfer process. 

Similarly to ICPs (see Chap. 2) and nanostractured surfaces (see Chap. 6), antifouling properties are also among the possible virtues of RPs the change in 

RPs have been proposed for a relatively long time, and luce pictures are found in many books on electroanalysis, in order to sketch the redox mediation in compact or swollen, differently structured, polymer systems. However, in our opinion, this class of conductive polymers has attracted insufficient attention from electroanalysts. The number of newly synthesized RPs actually used as electrode materials for electroanalysis is much lower than reasonable, on the basis of the appealing characteristics of similar materials. One reason for this can undoubtedly be found in the widespread use of ICPs that, once suitably functionalized, constitute valid and often preferable alternatives to RPs. It is for Chap. 2 to complain about a similar deficiency in the frame of ICPs, which induces doubts about the actual validity of the explanation given here. Moreover, when amperometric sensing is taken into consideration, common benchmark analytes such as ascorbic acid or uric acid, in aqueous buffered solution, are considered. Less often, the study is widened to different analytes, and, even less fi-equently, the effectiveness of the systems in real matrices is evaluated. It is evident that the last studies would be of basic importance, since they point to specific interfering species and deal with true matrix effects, as to the presence of poisoning adsorbing species, possible speci-ation, etc. 

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