Investigations of some selected properties of electrochemically synthesized poly(N-ethyl aniline) films

The optical, morphological, thermal and redox properties of galvanostatical ly deposited poly(N-ethyl aniline) films are investigated. Effects of monom er concentration and substrate resistance on him properties have been repor ted. At higher concentration (0.8 and 1.0 M), the formation of a conducting phase with an absorbance maxima at similar to 840 nm is found to be more p redominant. The substrate resistance also has a profound influence on the f ilm properties in terms of rate and selectivity in deposition of the conduc ting phase. These results are supported by IR spectroscopy. The redox prope rties are affected by concentration of monomer while the substrate resistan ce contributes towards loss in reversibility of the species formed, especia lly at higher monomer concentration. Also, the morphology of the films exhi bits improvement in quality with monomer concentration. The density of the fibres is affected by the decrease in substrate resistance. Thermal pattern also exhibits variation in terms of the number of steps involved in decomp osition as well as the final decomposition temperature. (C) 1999 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.