Enzymatic oxidation of alkoxyanilines for preparation of conducting polymers

A biomimetic route for synthesis of a conducting molecular complex between polyalkoxyanilines and a polyelectrolyte, poly (sodium 4‐styrenesulfonate) (SPS) is presented. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was used to catalyze the polymerization of alkoxyanilines. A few of water‐soluble ring‐substituted polyalkoxyanilines have been enzymatically synthesized with variation of groups, such as ortho‐methoxy, meta‐methoxy, ortho‐ethoxy, and meta‐ethoxy to form polyalkoxyanilines/SPS complexes. The presence of alkoxy substituents affects the polymerization reactions. These enzymatic oxidation reactions occur in a different potential range to that observed for the chemical polymerization. Similar electrochemical and optical properties were obtained for every pair of ortho‐ and meta‐alkoxy substituted polyanilines. For comparing, polyalkoxyanilines were also prepared by chemical polymerization in the presence of SPS. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 103: 3724–3729, 2007