Study of electrical conduction in polypyrrole by varying the doping level

Abstract

Electrical conductivity and thermopower are studied in the conducting polymer polypyrrole doped with varying levels of the dopant hexafluoro phosphate (PF₆). A single sample is prepared by galvanostatic electrochemical polymerization at −40 °C. From this sample, six samples having different dopant levels and correspondingly different conductivity are prepared by dedoping. Low temperature d.c. electrical conductivity measurement shows the metal-insulator transition from fully doped sample to dedoped samples. On the metallic side the data are fitted to the localization-interaction model. In critical regime, it follows the power law. On the insulating side, it is variable range hopping. Thermopower measurements are done in the temperature range 300 K to 20 K. Thermopower is linear for samples on the metallic side and becomes more and more non-linear on the insulating side. It is described using a combination of the linear metallic term and the non-linear hopping term.