Characterization of conducting polymer–quartz composites

Abstract

We have characterized several polypyrrole–quartz and polyaniline–quartz composites over a range of conducting-polymer loading levels by thermogravimetric analysis (TG), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and conductivity measurements. It is shown that the conducting polymer overlayers are remarkably thin and uniform; film thicknesses were determined independently by TG and RBS and are in close agreement. The film thickness of one of the polypyrrole–quartz samples was used to obtain the first direct measurement of the conductivity of the polypyrrole component (ca. 35 Ω^–1 cm^–1).