Water Dispersible Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Nanogold Composites through Soft Template Route for Electrochemical Sensing of Ascorbic Acid

This study presented the development of a water dispersible poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanogold nanocomposite with a renewable resource-derived amphiphilic dopant, 3-pentadecylphenol-4-sulphonic acid (3-PDPSA). The amphiphilic dopant so designed is found to form stable emulsion with ethylenedioxythiopene (EDOT) with a wide composition range in water. The lyotropic behaviour of the PDPSA is found to be of complex nature at higher concentration higher than the micellar region. 3-PDPSA have built-in head-to-tail geometry effectively penetrates into PEDOT-Au chains to form highly organized nanowires. PEDOT-Au nanotubes are freely dispersible in water for various applications. PEDOT-Au is found to be an effective electrode modifier and acts as an electrochemical sensor for determining the concentration of ascorbic acid.