In situ AFM Study of the Electropolymerization of Polypyrrole/Gold Nanocomposite

In this work, an electrochemical cell was designed and fabricated for in situ AFM study of the electropolymerization process of PPY in the presence of gold nanoparticles. PPY/Au nanocomposite was one step-synthesized simply by the potentiostatic deposition at constant potential. Based on the results of the current-time transient (I-t) measurements and in situ AFM measurements, it was found that the nucleation and growth of PPY/Au nanocomposite was an instantaneous three-dimension progress after nuclei overlapping. Regarding the process before nuclei overlapping, compared with that of pure PPY, it departed from the instantaneous three-dimension progress because of the presence of gold nanoparticles.