Synthesis and Electrochemical Study of a Functional Ionic Polymer

Viologen‐modified poly(vinylphosphonic acid) is synthesized by a simple EDC coupling reaction and characterized by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Electrochemical studies of the polymer are performed in solution and on a skin‐printed electrode, the latter after making a composite with TEOS. A first redox peak is found at E0= −0.57 V. The polymer is found to show diffusion‐confined phenomena in solution and surface‐confined phenomena on the electrode. On increasing the silica content, an increase in the resistivity of the film is found, which is reflected in an increase of the anodic‐to‐cathodic peak separation. From a plot of the current vs. the scan rate, the surface concentration of the redox‐active species is found to be 2.5 × 10−10mol · cm2.