Electrochemical behaviour of conducting polymers obtained into clay-catalyst layers. An in situ Raman spectroscopy study

In this paper we present the study of the electrochemical properties of the following conducting polymers: poly(o-anisidine), polyaniline and copolymers of aniline and o-anisidine obtained by a new synthetic method. The polymers are synthesized in free-of-acid conditions, using an activated montmorillonitic clay catalyst, known as Maghnite-H⁺ (Mag-H) as proton source. The electrochemical behaviour of poly(o-anisidine) created using Mag-H (PoANI-MagH) and their copolymers with aniline is quite different of those polymers created in HCl solution. In situ Raman data suggest that the structure of PoANI-MagH is a mixture of conducting (polyaniline-type) and redox (phenoxazine or phenazine-type) segments.