Superhydrophobic polyaniline hollow bars: Constructed with nanorod-arrays based on self-removing metal-monomeric template

Superhydrophobic hollow polyaniline (PANI) bars assembled from nanorod-arrays were prepared in the presence of metal-monomeric template. Toward preparing these PANI bars, self-assembling and template methods were simultaneously applied. The self-removing metal-monomeric template was probably formed when a high concentration of aniline (0.5 M) was added into the cadmium acetate solution, and then decomposed gradually during the oxidative polymerization of aniline. In addition, a superhy-drophobic flower-like PANI hierarchical structure was also prepared without the template (cadmium acetate aqueous solution containing a low concentration of aniline (0.05 M)). The formation mechanism of the hollow PANI bars was discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.