Electrochemical Considerations for the Electropolymerization of PPy on PEDOT:PSS for Yarn Actuator Applications

Abstract

Electrochemical devices as conducting polymer-based actuators or textile actuators often use layers of different conducting polymers. Although research has been performed on such devices, it is still not very clear how the different layers affect each other. Here we attempt to clarify such influence on yarn actuators using electrochemical methods. Different electrochemical methods as cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry or chronopotentiometry were used to electropolymerize polypyrrole on top of a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) coated textile yarns by using different applied electrochemical conditions (potentials/currents). Thus, we found that selecting suitable conditions (as an applied potential of +0.8 V) for such electropolymerization is key to obtain a polypyrrole of high quality. Besides, we show that the underlying layer of PEDOT:PSS has an influence on such electropolymerization conditions and can be subjected to parallel redox reactions as oxidation or electrochemical degradation that influence the electropolymerized polypyrrole.