Reaction driven biomimetic sensing characteristics of polyaniline/chitosan hybrid film: Sensing chemical and electrical reaction conditions

Reaction driven biomimetic sensing characteristics of a highly electroactive polyaniline/chitosan hybrid film is presented. The coral like nanowire structures of polyaniline were grown through chitosan film matrix during in situ chemical oxidative polymerization with large cavities, which is evidenced from SEM analysis, responsible for efficient electrochemical activity. The sensing of the hybrid film reaction towards electrical as well as chemical working environment was studied galvanostatically (chronopotentiometry) at a constant charge in aqueous HCl solutions. The consumed electrical energy during the reaction has a linear dependence with applied current and semi-logarithmic dependence with electrolyte concentration. The generation of the sensing energetic signals during the electrochemical reaction of the chitosan/polyaniline hybrid film in different concentrations of the electrolyte is compared with signal generation in natural muscles (the actin-myosin molecular machines driven by chemical reactions) during working under normal state or fatigue state. The concentration sensing was further verified through potentiodynamic method (coulovoltammetry) and found that the consumed redox charge (reaction extension) varies as a double logarithmic function of the concentration. That is, the extension of the reaction involving conformational movements of the reacting polymeric chains (the molecular machines) respond to or senses the chemical reaction ambient.

Automated summary

This article presents the reaction driven biomimetic sensing characteristics of a highly electroactive polyaniline/chitosan hybrid film. The SEM analysis, galvanostatic and potentiodynamic methods were used to study the sensing signals generated by the hybrid film in different chemical reaction environments.