title: Electrochemical deposition of polypyrrole nanolayers on discontinuous ultrathin gold films.
abstract: Ultrathin layers of polypyrrole (PPy) were electrochemically grown between microelectrodes on a Si/SiO(2) substrate. Conducting nanolayers of PPy are directly grown onto ultrathin discontinuous gold (Au) film between the microelectrodes, with thicknesses in the range 10-100 nm. The system therefore forms a novel (PPy/Au) nanocomposite conductor. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and conductivity measurements indicate that at all thicknesses a relatively uniform film is formed but with significant roughness that reflects the roughness of the metallic island layer. In PPy/Au films with thickness ∼10 nm, the small barriers around the gold islands dominate the conduction, and as the film thickness increases to 100 nm the intrinsic conductivity of highly doped PPy dominates the charge transport.
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, POB 35 (YFL), FI-40014, Finland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mtsuko
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Avnon
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lievonen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahlskog
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Menon