Conductive-polymer intercalation in layered V₂O₅ xerogels. Intercalated polypyrrole

The authors report on preliminary chemical, physical and electrical data on the intercalative polymerization products of pyrrole and its derivatives in V₂O₅ xerogels. The reaction of neat pyrrole with a preswollen V₂O₅ xerogel is extremely fast and results in an amorphous black highly conducting product. This occurs because of over-reduction of the V₂O₅ which causes major structural changes in the framework. This has been shown previously using other redox intercalants. Due to the high reactivity of pyrrole with V₂O₅ xerogels, this reaction is difficult to control. However when dilute acetonitrile solutions of pyrrole are applied to V₂O₅ xerogel films or small amounts of pyrrole are applied on H₂O preswollen films, the resulting black shiny products have a layered structure.