Synthesis And Characterization Of Nanofibers Of Conducting Polyaniline And Its Substitute Derivative

Abstract

Intrinsically conducting polymers have been extensively studied due to their fascinating electronic properties and potential applications. One dimensional conducting polymer nanostructures have been the focus of quite extensive studies worldwide due to their high aspect ratio, high porosity apart from high surface area to volume ratio. In this paper, we report the synthesis of nanofibers of polyaniline and its substitute derivates and their comparative study in respect of electrical conductivity. Nanofibers of doped polyaniline (PANI), poly(o-methoxyaniline) (POMXA) and poly(o-methylaniline) (POMLA) were synthesized without need of any templates by interfacial polymerization. SEM, TEM, FTIR, UV-VIS and XRD were used to characterize the synthesized conducting polymeric materials. The average diameters of the synthesized nanofibers of conducting polymeric materials were in the range of 70-120 nm. The electrical conductivity was found to be in the range of 0.3 - 1.0 S/cm following the order as POMXA < POMLA < PANI which was found to be closely related to the size dependent electrical properties of the nanofibers. Optical band gap of these polymers was evaluated from UV–VIS absorption studies. Direct and indirect transition energy band gaps were determined from Tauc’s plots. Interfacial polymerization was shown to be readily scalable to produce bulk quantities of nanofibers of substitute derivative of polyaniline.