Philippine E-Journals

Morphological and Elemental Studies of Zinc Oxide- and Sodium pToluenesulfonate-doped Polypyrrole Films

Norberto T. Alcantara | Maria Carla F. Manzano | Enrique M. Manzano

 

Abstract:

Galvanostatic and galvanodynamic methods of electrochemical deposition were employed to fabricate conducting polypyrrole (PPy) film electrodes for supercapacitor applications. In this method, zinc oxide- and sodium ptoluenesulfonate- doped film electrodes were electrochemically synthesized in an aqueous solution containing 0.10M pyrrole as monomer and 0.12M sodium ptoluenesulfonate (Na-pTS) as dopant and 0.1M zinc oxide (ZnO) as co-dopant. A two-electrode electrochemical cell was used, and for counter and working electrodes, stainless-steel plates. The applied current density during synthesis was kept at 4mA/cm2 with varying duty cycle of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. The thickness and surface morphology of the Zno/NapTS/PPy films grown were obtained using scanning electron microscopy. The ZnO/NapTS/PPy films have average thickness ranging from 30.60 µm to 1688.0 µm. The surface morphology of ZnO/NapTS/PPy film synthesized at constant current (100% duty cycle) exhibits lamellar and spherulite structures associated with increased conductivity. The measured AC resistance of the ZnO/NapTS/ PPy films ranged from 0.64 ? to 3.9 ?, with the films synthesized at 100% duty cycle showing the lowest AC resistance.