Gas Sensing Ability of a Nanostructured Conducting Polypyrrole Film Prepared by Catalytic Electropolymerization on Cu/Au Interdigital Electrodes

Nanostructured conductive polypyrrole has been prepared electrochemically on the surfaces of Cu/Au interdigital electrodes in the presence of Fe(II) as catalyst and ClO4- as anion dopant by using constant potential amperometry and cyclic voltammetry. The morphology of the conducting films was examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy, indicating a dependence from the processing technique. The synthesized polymer was used to investigate the properties of the gas sensing ability. The effect of the catalyst concentration on the oxidation mechanism of pyrrole was discussed. The PPy-ClO4 gas sensors had demonstrated fast response time and high sensitivity to VOCs.