Optical and electrical characterization of plasma polymerized pyrrole films

Plasma polymerization of pyrrole was carried out in the presence and absence of iodine, and the resulting films were characterized by optical and electrical means. Their infrared spectra were very similar to each other, suggesting that iodine was neither bonded in any manner to, nor strongly interacting with, the pyrrole polymer chains. Based on their infrared spectra, a chemical structure was proposed for the plasma-polymerized pyrrole (PPPy) film. An analysis of the electronic spectra gave band gap energies of 1.3 and 0.8 eV for the undoped and doped PPPy films, respectively. In line with this result, the current-voltage characteristics of the two types of polymer films revealed that the conductivity of the doped PPPy film was approximately two times greater than that of the undoped one. An investigation of the scanning electron micrographs led us to conclude that iodine had changed the surface morphology of the PPPy film, resulting in the small increase in conductivity. A detailed analysis of the conduction mechanism disclosed that the conduction mechanism in the undoped PPPy film is a Schottky-type mechanism. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.