Electroless Deposition of Conducting Polymers Using the Scanning Electrochemical Microscope

Micropatterning of organic substances using scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is presented as a versatile, reproducible method for obtaining patterned materials of mesoscopic resolution—between that of conventional lithography and scanning tunneling microscopy or atomic force microscopy. In this technique, conducting polymer is electrolessly deposited on different substrates. It is reported that both flat layers and sets of thin needles protruding from the surface may be formed simply by varying the nature of the redox mediator.