Fabricating and Tailoring Polyaniline (PANI) Nanofibers with High Aspect Ratio in a Low-Acid Environment in a Magnetic Field.

Abstract

In a 0.010 m HCl solution, we successfully transformed irregular polyaniline (PANI) agglomerates into uniform PANI nanofibers with a diameter of 46-145 nm and a characteristic length on the order of several microns by the addition of superparamagnetic Fe3 O4 microspheres in a magnetic field. The PANI morphological evolution showed that the PANI nanofibers stemmed from the PANI coating shell synthesized on the surface of the Fe3 O4 microsphere chains. It was found that the magnetic field could optimize the PANI nanofibers with a narrow diameter size distribution, and effectively suppressed secondary growth. When compared with other microspheres (like silica and polystyrene), only the use of superparamagnetic Fe3 O4 microspheres resulted in the appearance of PANI nanofibers. Attempts to form these high-quality PANI nanofibers in other concentrations of HCl solution were unsuccessful. This deficiency was largely attributed to the inappropriate quantity of aniline cations.