This work describes the study of the ionic transport in polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPY) modified electrodes polymerized in presence of nickel tetrasulfonated phthalocyanine (NiTsPc). Elemental analysis and infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the resulting composite films. The impact of the phthalocyanine incorporation was evaluated by electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance under potentiodynamic conditions. Results have shown that the presence of the negative charge (SO3- groups) modifies the nature of the 'ionic exchange' membranes, during the cycling. In the case of PANI/NiTsPc modified electrodes, the electroneutralization is mainly achieved by the participation of protons both in HCl and in camphorsulfonic acid (HCSA) electrolyte solutions. For PPY/NiTsPc composites, the cation contribution is dominant in the case of LiCl and NaCl solutions and the anion transport becomes important when CsCl and BaCl2 solutions are used. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.