A new strategy based on inverse microemulsions for electrosynthesis of poly (3-methyl-thiophene) films.

Electroactive poly(3-methylthiophene) (PMT) cannot be electrosynthesized on metallic electrodes in non polar solvents such as alcanes because of the lack of conductivity. In this work, these conductivity problems have been overcome by employing an inverse microemulsion medium made of an homogenous 0.7 M AQT + 1M HClO4 octanewater (88/12 v/v) mixture. Conductive, electroactive PMT films were obtained on a Pt electrode. This study shows the interest of using a usually non conducting, non polar predominantly organic medium for the electrosynthesis of polymer films.