Investigation of the electronic structure and spectroelectrochemical properties of conductive polymer nanotube arrays

New nanoporous polymeric templates supported on conductive substrates (gold-coated Si wafers or ITO-glass) were used to electrosynthesize polypyrrole (PPy) nanotube brushes. The influence of different synthesis conditions (template pore size, electrodeposition potential and temperature) on the resulting structure and properties of the nanotubes were investigated. X-ray photoelectron, Raman and UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopies were used to characterize the doping level, the conjugation length, and the electronic structure of PPy nanotubes. For the first time, we also report on the redox properties of PPy nanotubes using in-situ UV–Vis spectroelectrochemistry.