Facile One-Pot Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Nanostructured Organic Dispersible Polyaniline

Novel polyaniline (PANI) with nanotube, nanosheet, and nanofiber shapes was facilely synthesized by a self-templating one-pot process. Anilinium-dode-cylsulfate (DS) complex, obtained by mixing equivalent amounts of aniline and sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), played a template-like role in forming PANI nanostructures. It was found that the morphology and electrical conductivity of the PANI nanostructures changed with the amount of SDS and the reaction temperature. Nanotube-shaped PANI synthesized at the temperature of anilinium-DS complex formation in presence of SDS (concentration <0.12 M) showed high conductivity (12.9 S/cm). At higher temperature, the morphology changed to shape of a rose flower and electrical conductivity decreased to 3.95 S/cm. This suggested that both temperature and SDS concentration were key parameters for controlling the formation of the anilinium-DS complex that acted as a template. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1024-1029, 2009