Highly crystalline and thin polyaniline nanofibers oxidized by ferric chloride

Abstract

Highly crystalline polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers with 16–23 nm in diameter were successfully prepared by using FeCl 3·6H 2O as the oxidant in the presence of inorganic acids (e.g. HCl, H 2SO 4, H 3PO 4 and HF) without any external template. It is found that the effects of the dopant structure and the molar ratio of FeCl 3 to aniline on the morphology and diameter of the resulting PANI nanofibers are weak when FeCl 3·6H 2O was used as the oxidant. It is proposed that low redox potential of FeCl 3 results in thin nanofibers with ∼20 nm in average diameter, indicating that FeCl 3 is an excellent oxidant to prepare really nano-scaled fibers or tubes of PANI or its derivatives via a self-assembly process.