Influence of the preparation conditions on the properties of electropolymerised polyaniline

Polymerisation conditions have a remarkable effect on the electrochemical properties of polyaniline. Care has to be taken to ensure identical conditions for electrochemical experiments when films electropolymerised differently are examined in comparison, especially when films are prepared potentiodynamically. UV-vis spectra of PANI films show a hypsochromic shift with increasing potential, and a theory of this phenomenon is presented. It is based on the assumption of a distribution of chain segments of different effective conjugation length.