Effect Of Ultrasound Irradiation in Nucleation and Growth Mechanisms of Poly-<i>o</i>-Anisidine and Polyaniline
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Date
2013
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Abstract
The current work studies the effect of ultrasound on nucleation and growth mechanisms (NGM) from the respective i-t transients obtained during the electro-polymerization of ortho-anisidine (OAN) and aniline (ANI), using a potentiostatic (potential step) approach. To this end, optimum electro-synthesis working conditions were searched for using cyclic voltammetry in the presence and absence of ultrasound radiation. The results revealed that ultrasonic disturbance has no effect on the oxidation potential of the starting units. In addition, i-t transients recorded at controlled potential are complex and their deconvolution revealed that both monomers studied herein consist of three contributions. However, it is noteworthy that when the system was irradiated with ultrasound, the respective NGM was not modified, since the same contributions are retained, only the time at which they are defined and the proportion with which each of them contributes to the total charge are altered. It was verified that the contribution most affected by ultrasound was that with diffusion-controlled growth, which is consistent with the morphology changes of the obtained polymeric deposits and the respective increase in the recorded currents during its electro-synthesis; this was explained by means of the proposed model of electro-polymerization based on oligomers solubility at the electrode/solution interface.
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poly(o-anisidine), polyaniline, electro-polymerization, nucleation and growth mechanisms, ultrasound irradiation