Organic Electrode Reactions - Fundamentals and Applications of Organic Electrochemistry - page 169

Figure 5.17 Poly(ethylene glycol) with two
terminal hydroxy groups serves as a
multifunctional additive for anodic fluorination
using KF

5.8 Electrochemical
Polymerization

Electrochemical polymerization uses
electrogenerated substrates for polymerization
as monomers or initiator. In the former case,
the electrogenerated aromatic monomer
couples in a polycondensation process to give a
π-conjugated polymer, in which the p -orbitals
of the aromatics overlap throughout the
polymer main chain. Such conjugated polymers
are intrinsically conductive and therefore are
called conducting polymers [89]. Generally they
are semi-conducting materials but chemical or
electrochemical doping imparts electrical
conductivity to them. The conducting polymers
are obtained on the surface of the working
electrode as films because the electron transfer
of monomer and its coupling reaction proceeds
near the surface of the electrode and insoluble
polymeric product is deposited on it. Although
chemical electron transfer of monomers in
solution is also available to produce the
corresponding conducting polymers, the
insoluble polymer powder obtained is difficult
to process for application. The easy film
formation

during electrochemical