AFM study of the initial stages of polyaniline growth on ITO electrode

In this work, the initial stages (nucleation and growth) of aniline electropolymerisation on ITO electrodes in 0.5 moll-1 sulphuric acid were studied. The polyaniline nucleation was promoted by chronoamperometry and the results indicated that the ITO surface morphology exerts a profound influence in the deposit morphology at the initial stage of polymer growth. At these very short deposition times, it is impossible to distinguish between fibrilar and globular structures, which are characteristic of thick polyaniline films, obtained only in later stages of deposition.