A NEW INTERFACIAL POLYMERIZATION METHOD FOR FORMING METAL CONDUCTIVE POLYMER SCHOTTKY BARRIERS

We have recently described a new interfacial polymerization method for forming thin films of electronically conductive polymers. In this method, the pores in a microporous support membrane are filled with an oxidative polymerization reagent (e.g. Fe3+) and this membrane-confined solution is exposed to a vapor phase containing a monomer which can be oxidatively polymerized to yield a conductive polymer. This procedure causes a thin, defect-free film of the conductive polymer to grow across the surface of the microporous support membrane. This interfacial polymerization method creates the possibility of coating thin conductive polymer films onto any desired material. This would be accomplished by first coating the surface of the microporous support membrane with a thin film of the desired material and then conducting interfacial polymerization at this modified membrane surface. We demonstrate this concept in this paper by conducting interfacial polymerization of polypyrrole onto aluminum to form Al/polypyrrole Schottky barriers. These Schottky barriers showed better rectification than previous metal/polypyrrole Schottky barriers described in the literature. We have also used this new interfacial polymerization procedure to form ohmic gold/polypyrrole junctions.