Towards Robust Electroactive Biomaterials

Organic electronic materials based on carbon nanotubes, graphene and conducting polymers have interesting optical and electronic properties and have attracted interest for a variety of applications in the technical and medical industries (e.g. batteries, bioactuators, biosensors, electronics, tissue engineering). Examples of conducting polymers include: polyacetylene, polyaniline, polythiophene, polyisothionaphthene, polyparavinylene, polyparaphenylene, polyparaphenylene sulfide, and polypyrrole. Polypyrrole is an interesting candidate polymer because of its biocompatibility and stability under atmospheric conditions, however, one of its drawbacks include poor mechanical properties and processability. With a view to enhancing the mechanical properties of polypyrrole films we have electrochemically produced a series of films including different amounts of biopolymers, and studied them with a variety of techniques (microscopy, spectroscopy etc.)