Formation mechanism of a nanotubular polyanilines prepared by an emulsion polymerization without organic solvent

Abstract

A nanotubular polyaniline (PANINT) was prepared from a simple emulsified polymerization method without oil solvent present. A mechanism of the formation of the nano-fibers/tubes was proposed to show that it started with the connecting arrangement of the neighboring anilinium micelles before and during polymerization, which resulted in the formation of the intermediate morphology of centipedes converting into rod-like nanofibers later. The obtained PANINTs displayed not only nanofibrous structure but owned an unusual dispersing behavior in toluene. SEM and TEM showed the dendrite-like networks of nanofibers connected and glued together by the free (not complexed to polyaniline backbone) n-dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) molecules. After removing the free DBSA by acetone, the clear/well-defined empty nanotubes can be seen from TEM in the magnified micrograph. The Atomic force microscopic (AFM) microgaphs demonstrated the cottage like surface morphology of the un-perturbed PANINTs and the morphology was converted to an anisotropic/oriented rods after rubbing on the wet/cast PANINTs' dispersion of toluene before entire evaporation.