A New Technique of Electro-Synthesis of Polypyrrole Nanoparticles

Abstract

We report here a two phase electro-oxidation technique for the synthesis of polypyrrole from pyrrole using picric acid as dopant onto a stainless steel electrode. Pyrrole and its red color H-bonded complex with picric acid are almost insoluble in water but soluble in di-chloromethane (DCM). Water and DCM form an immiscible solvent pair. We demonstrated that polypyrrole nano particles are formed in aqueous phase onto working electrode coupled with Pt counter electrode placed near the boundary of organic phase by passing a current of 0.25 mA/cm2 for 600 s under galvanostatic condition. This has been explained in terms of steady but small concentration of pyrrole picric acid complex in the water phase and free radical scavenging property of picric acid.