The electrochem. properties of conducting polymers are highly dependent on the microstructure. The authors report a method to produce specific microstructures of polypyrrole through electropolymn. in the presence of the amphiphile N-{11-(2-hydroxyethyldimethylammonium)undecanoyl}-N,N'-dioctyl-L-glutamate, bromide, which forms supramol. hydrogels with pyrrole in aq. soln. These hydrogels were used as templates during polypyrrole electropolymn. to give microstructures composed of the bundles of bilayer membranes. The highly porous nature of these films resulted in electrochem. properties superior to polypyrrole deposited under the same condition without use of an amphiphilic template. Anal. of the scan rate dependence on cyclic voltammogram reveals that the porous templated films facilitate fast diffusion of dopant ions. The actuation properties were also studied in aq. solns. contg. Na p-toluenesulfonate electrolyte. The strains displayed by the template polypyrrole films were twice those synthesized without the use of a template. [on SciFinder(R)]