Diameter-Controlled Synthesis of Polyaniline Nanofibers

• Published in: Polymer bulletin (Berlin, Germany) Vol. 61; no. 5; pp. 563 - 568
• Main Authors: Anderson, Rika E., Ostrowski, Alexis D., Gran, Danielle E., Fowler, Jesse D., Hopkins, Alan R., Villahermosa, Randy M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01-11-2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aniline; Applied sciences; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Exact sciences and technology; Morphology; Nanofibers; Organic Chemistry; Original Article; Physical Chemistry; Physicochemistry of polymers; Polyanilines; Polymer Sciences; Polymerization; Polymers and radiations; Soft and Granular Matter; Interdigitated Electrode; PANI; Nanofiber Diameter; PANI Nanofibers; Sweep Rate; Conducting polymers; Structure processing relationship; Morphology; Preparation; Synthetic fiber; Aromatic polymer; Nanofiber; Experimental study; Electrochemical polymerization; Diameter; Aniline polymer
• ISSN: 0170-0839; 1436-2449
• DOI: 10.1007/s00289-008-0983-x

Summary
Various diameters of polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers were easily made by varying the sweep rate in the electrochemical polymerization of the aniline monomer. At a sweep rate of 5 mV/s, the PANI nanofibers have an average diameter of 450 nm with a median of 440 nm. The fibers are short, on the order of a few microns in length, and exhibit a branched geometry. Increasing the sweep rate to 50 mV/s produced longer nanofibers with a smaller average diameter of 200 nm. Nanofibers synthesized at 100 mV/s were noted to be smaller with an average and median diameter of 100 nm. These results illustrate the ease in which the morphology of nanostructured PANI can be altered and indicate that the method has the potential to create multi-diameter fibers or mixed-morphology materials.