The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy behavior of poly(aniline) nanocomposite electrodes modified by Layer-by-Layer deposition

In this manuscript we describe the EIS characterization of electrodes modified by poly(aniline) nanocomposites using the layer-by-layer technique. Important effects such as layer growth, electric connectivity, surface roughness, electrode durability and most importantly the interfacial Faradaic process dependence on the number of bilayers were thoroughly studied by electrochemical techniques. FTIR and EDS experiments corroborated the incorporation of both anionic and cationic species within the layered modified electrode. The EIS experiments showed that the low frequency capacitance can be directly correlated with the charge distribution depending on the number of bilayers onto the modified electrode and as a function of applied potential as well. Although widely described along the past few years in the electrochemical sciences aiming the construction of high performance electrodes for many different applications, there are very few detailed EIS studies that in fact describe the electrochemical activity of the layered electrodes. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.