Morphology of polyaniline nanoparticles synthesized in triblock copolymers micelles

Aniline was polymerized with oxidant ammonium peroxydisulfate in aqueous medium comprising poly(e-caprolactone)-poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL-PEO-PCL) amphiphilic triblock copolymer micelles. Micelle size was found to influence the morphology of polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles greatly. PANI synthesized in PCL-PEO(10000)-PCL and PCL-PEO(4000)-PCL micelles exhibited ordinary solid spherical shape, while PANI synthesized in PCL-PEO(1000)-PCL micelles exhibited hollow sphere structure. A possible explanation was offered to interpret the formation of the hollow spheres. The chemical structure of PANI was characterized with FT-IR and UV-vis spectra. The conductivity of PANI was found to depend on the regular distribution of conducting phase and the structure of PANI prepared in PCL-PEO-PCL micelles. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.