Controllable fabrication of porous free-standing polypyrrole films via a gas phase polymerization

A facile gas phase polymerization method has been proposed in this work to fabricate porous free-standing polypyrrole (PPy) films. In the presence of pyrrole vapor, the films are obtained in the gas/water interface spontaneously through the interface polymerization with the oxidant of FeCl(3) in the water. Both the thickness of the film and the size of the pores could be controlled by adjusting the concentrations of the oxidant and the reaction time. The as-prepared PPy films exhibited a superhydrophilic behavior due to its composition and porous structures. We have demonstrated a possible formation mechanism for the porous freestanding PPy films. This gas phase polymerization is shown to be readily scalable to prepare large area of PPy films. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.