Electrochemical synthesis of polypyrrole nanowires in the presence of gelatin

Biotemplating is an emerging, unique approach for the synthesis and organization of the organic or inorganic materials into well-defined nanostructures. In this article, conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPy) nanowires were electrochemically synthesized using a protein molecule, gelatin, as a template. The morphologies, microstructures, chemical compositions, and electrochemical performances of the obtained nanowires were investigated in detail. It was found that the gelatin played an important role in the formation of the PPy nanowires and the morphologies of the nanowires were closely related to the electrodes used. This work not only extended the application of gelatin to the synthesis of the conducting polymer nanowires, but also presented a simple and useful route to the fabrication of PPy nanowires with different length, from normal size to superlong size. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.