Electro-polymerization of polypyrroles, comparison among electrochemistry, glow, and arc discharges

This work presents a comparison between electrochemical (Echem), plasma glow, and arc discharge polymerizations of pyrrole doped with iodine to correlate the energy of synthesis, chemical structure, and electrical conductivity of the polymers. Plasma glow discharges were used in the gas phase, electrochemistry in liquid, and arc discharges in a hybrid gas–liquid combination. Polypyrroles had structure and conductivity that varied with the synthesis parameters; Echem produced polymers with high carbonization and without the C≡N triple bonds resulting from the other syntheses. Conductivity divided the polymers in two: those synthesized in liquid were in the 0.01–1.0 S/m range, and those synthesized in gas were in the 10^–9–10^–7S/m range, with differences of up to eight orders of magnitude due to the dopants and electrolytes.