Template-Synthesis: A Method for Enhancing the Ionic and Electronic Conductivity in Electronically Conductive Polymers

Abstract Template-synthesis entails the synthesis of an electronically conductive polymer (or other material) within the pores of a microporous membrane. The membranes used have cylindrical pores of equivalent pore diameter; as a result, polymeric fibers are obtained, the diameters of which are determined by the diameter of the pores in the template membrane. We show in this paper that template-synthesized polypyrrole fibers show faster rates of charge-transport, during electrochemical “undoping”, and dramatically higher electronic conductivities, than conventional forms of this polymer ( eg electrochemically-synthesized film).