Asymmetrical modification of carbon microfibers by bipolar electrochemistry in acetonitrile

This contribution presents the asymmetrical modification of carbon microfibers (CMF) with gold and polythiophene, by bipolar electrochemistry (BPE) in acetonitrile (ACN). At first, the electrochemical behavior of AuCl4- in ACN was examined by cyclic voltammetry, in order to determine the deposition mechanism and the electric field threshold, beyond which bipolar electrochemistry allows metal deposition in such a medium. It is demonstrated that, by using suitable BPE conditions in ACN, it is possible to deposit asymmetrically species characterized by a difference in redox potential as high as 3 V. The modified CMFs are characterized by SEM, FEG-ESEM and EDS.