Electrochimica Acta, Vol.48, No.6, 733-739, 2003
Electropolymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene, N-ethylcarbazole and their mixtures in aqueous micellar solution
Electropolymerization by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry of N-ethylcarbazole (ETCZ) and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) was carried out in water-methanol (v/v: 1/3 0.01 M sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and 1.25 M perchloric acid on platinum button electrodes. Methanol improves the ethylcarbazole solubility and allows a well defined polymer growth on the working electrode. The SDS makes easier the ETCZ and EDOT electropolymerization. Indeed, the presence of micelles decreases the monomer oxidation potential and induces an acceleration of the polymerization. ETCZ and EDOT have similar monomer oxidation potentials in this medium. Moreover their polymers show a better stability than the polymers obtained without surfactants. Therefore, electropolymerization mixtures of these monomers was carried out with different ratios (v/v, 70/30, 50/50 and 30/70) in order to prepare copolymers and the resulting products were characterized by electrochemistry, IR and UV-visible spectroscopy and SEM.
Keywords:micellar aqueous solutions;oxidative electropolymerization;poly (N-ethyl-carbazole);poly. (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)