Preparation of polymer-film electrodes by electropolymerization of 5-amino-1-naphthol

Abstract The electrooxidation of 5-amino-1-naphthol in acetonitrile solutions led to the formation of a purplish gray, air-stable, polymeric film (poly(5-amino-1-naphthol), poly(5,1-ANT)), which presents a nonfibrillar morphology, on basal-plane pyrolytic graphite(BPG) and In-Sn oxide conducting glass (ITO) electrodes. The film showed a reversible, well-defined oxidation-reduction response in both aqueous solutions of pH 1–13 and protic non-aqueous solutions and was semiconducting. The poly(5,1-ANT) film-coated ITO electrode displayed a reversible electrochromic character: purplish gray(oxidized form) ↔ pale brownish yellow (reduced one).