Electronic conductivity of pyrrole and aniline thin films polymerized by plasma

In this article, we present a study of the influence of temperature and humidity on the electric conductivity of polyaniline and polypyrrole thin films doped with iodine and synthesized by plasma (PAn/I and PPy/I, respectively). The polymers presented the characteristic ohmic conduction mechanism via electrons; however, the conductivity was much lower than that presented by the polymers obtained by traditional chemical oxidation. We submitted the polymers to heating–cooling cycles to study the temperature dependence of the conductivity. During the heating stage of the cycles, the electric conductivity of PPy/I showed a strong dependence on the humidity content. However, during the cooling step, the plots of conductivity, as a function of the inverse temperature of PPy/I and PAn/I, showed typical Arrhenius behavior. The activation energy of PPy/I had an average value of 1.1 ± 0.1 eV and was independent of the reaction time, whereas PAn/I presented a more complex behavior with activation energies that depended on the reaction time and the regional crystallinity induced in the heating step of the cycles. All the activation energies were below 2 eV, which places them in the semiconductor regime.