Synthesis and chiro-optical properties of water processable conducting poly(diphenylamine) nanocomposites

Water-soluble, chiral conducting, poly(diphenylamine) (PDPA) nanocomposites were synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of diphenylamine in the presence of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as a template and camphor sulphonic acid (CSA) as the chiral inductor. Composites were formed as stable aqueous dispersions under different experimental conditions, such as DPA to PAA molar ratios, PAA molecular weight, etc. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of the composites indicated the induction of chirality to PDPA. Compared to simple chiral PANI, the PDPA/PAA/CSA nanocomposites showed a different Cotton effect. The appearance of a CD band in the composite was complimentary to the bisignate, exciton-coupled band in the UV-Visible spectrum. FTIR spectra indicated the intimate mixing of PDPA and PAA.