Patterned self-assembled film guided electrodeposition

The paper describes the fabrication of polypyrrole (PPy) microstructures through patterned self-assembled film guided electrodeposition. Thus the patterned self-assembled monolayer is prepared by microcontact printing (μCP) and used as the template in the electrodeposition of PPy. It has been found that the self-assembled monolayer plays completely different roles on different substrates in directing the deposition of the PPy. Namely, the electrodeposition mainly occurs on the exposed area of the gold substrates patterned with dodecanethiol (DDT) and octadecanelthiol (ODT) and on the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate patterned with octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS), while PPy nucleates on the OTS covered area and no deposition is found on the exposed area of a semiconductor substrate (silicon). This is attributed to the co-operative effect between the substrate conductivity and the compatibility of the PPy oligomerwith the covered or exposed area of the substrate surface.