Electrochemical synthesis of poly(p-phenylene) and poly(p-phenylene)/TiO2 nanowires in an ionic liquid

This study shows for the first time that poly(p-phenylene) (PPP) nanowires can be easily obtained by electrochemical synthesis at room temperature. The method involves the template assisted electropolymerization of benzene in the air and water stable ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate ([HMIm]FAP). Track-etched polycarbonate membranes (PC) with an average pore diameter of 90 nm were used as templates. Dense and highly flexible bundles of PPP nanowires with a high aspect ratio (>160) were easily obtained by this method. In addition, we present here our first results to obtain PPP/TiO2 nanowires by the combination of a sol-gel technique with electropolymerization. HR-SEM, TEM and EDX were used for the structural characterization of the nanowires. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.