Electroactive PI sphere generated by electrospraying

In this study, electroactive polyimide microspheres (EPSs) based on conjugating segments of electroactive aminocapped aniline trimer as diamine and 4,4'-(4,4'-isopropylidenediphenoxy)-bis(phthalic anhydride) as dianhydride were successfully prepared by electrospraying technology and characterized by time of flight mass spectroscopy, H-1-NMR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The prepared electroactive polyimide was then dissolved in a suitable organic solvent (N,N-dimethylformamide; N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) followed by electrospraying treatment under four different operational parameters (i.e. solution concentration, applied voltage, feeding rate and deposition distance) to give EPSs of various diameters. Moreover, EPSs deposited on the Pt electrode were tested in a 1.0 mol L-1 H2SO4 aqueous solution by cyclic voltammetry which showed an obvious redox peak similar to polyaniline. (C) 2011 Society of Chemical Industry