(6bq) High Surface Area Ocvd Deposited Pyrrole-Co-Thiophene-3-Acetic Acid Conducting Copolymer Films for Resistance-Based Sensing Applications

Sensing of biological analytes using conducting polymers not only requires the presence of a functionality on the surface, but also the availability of high surface. Towards this goal, uniform, highly conductive coatings of ?COOH functionalized conducting polymer were obtained on spun-coated polyacrylonitrile fiber membranes using the oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) approach. This functionalization was achieved by co-polymerizing pyrrole with thiophene-3-acetic acid, using iron chloride (FeCl₃) as the oxidizing agent. Scanning electron microscopy of the obtained coatings showed that the conducting polymer coating is highly conformal to the surface of the fibers. Further, the presence of ?COOH groups on the surface was confirmed by both FTIR and XPS analysis. Conductivities of 2-10 S/cm were observed in the obtained co-polymer films. The amount of ?COOH functionality present on the surface was optimized by varying the ratio of thiophene-3-acetic acid to pyrrole in the feed mixture. In addition to spun-coated fiber membranes, conformality of the oCVD deposited conducting polymer coatings in trenches and porous membranes is also studied and will be discussed.