Ionic dynamics in conducting polymers based sensors - releasers studied by cyclic voltammetry and mirage effect.

Summary form only given. The Optical Beam Deflection technique (Mirage effect) coupled with Cyclic Voltammetry is used for discriminating between anionic and cationic fluxes created by the oxido-reduction of modified electrodes based on electronically conducting polymers (ECP). A recent improvement in this new technique, by using a propagation delay correction by convolution, enables the quantitative determination of each ionic contribution at every potential. Associated with the technique of ion size variation in the electrolyte, this study shows that even in the case of a simple ECP such as the polypyrrole, anions and cations do not play the same role and are involved differently along the stages of the redox mechanism. Comparison with self- , or with entrapped anions, doped polypyrrole is used for relating the various factors affecting the affinity and selectivity of the modified electrode. Electroactive dopants, neutral or anionic, from the N-methylphenothiazine family are used as probes for analysing the capturing or releasing properties, Also more sophisticated systems based on ionic dopants involving guest - host interactions, such as the /spl beta/-cyclodextrin sulfonate, are studied and characterized by mirage effect.