Conducting polymers template-assisted

Self-doped PANI are very interesting due to their unique electrochemical behavior unlike PANI, the self-doped polymer remains in its doped state in near neutral or alkaline media [28]. Fully self-doped PANIs are not easy to synthesize due to the lower reactivity of acid-functionalized anilines. Kim et al. [29, 30] introduced an alternative approach in the template-assisted enzymatic polymerization of aniline. Previously, only polyanionic templates had been used for PANI synthesis. However, acid-functionalized anilines bear a net anionic charge in aqueous solution, and attempts to use SPS as template with carboxyl-functionalized aniline resulted in red-brown colored polymers with no polaron transitions, regardless of the synthetic conditions. The use of polycationic templates, such as those shown in Figure 8.2 allowed the synthesis of linear and electrically conductive PANIs with self-doping ability due to the doping effect of the carboxyl groups present in the polymer backbone. 

Template-assisted polymerization of condueting polymers has been an effective way to reproducibly fabricate conducting-polymer nanowires. Fundamentally, the technique employs a hard membrane template with pores of uniform length and diameter, typically composed of alumina. Polymerization can be performed chemically using a mixture of... 

Sudha, J.D. and Sivakala, S. (2009) Conducting polystyrene/polyaniline blend through template-assisted emulsion polymerization Colloid Polym. Sci.. 2X7,1347-1354. 

Another method of template-assisted synthesis, mainly used for the growth of metal nanowires, involves the deposition of metal into the cyUndrical pores or channels of an inert, non-conductive nanoporous electrode material. Track etch membranes, porous alumina, nanoporous conductive rubber polymers, metals, semiconductors, carbons and other solid materials have been used as templates to prepare nanometer-sized particles, fibrils, rods and tubules. The experimental set... 

In this paper we report the selective assembly of a conducting polymer onto a prefabricated patterned template assisted by DC electric field. More importantly, we have demonstrated the patterned conducting polymers can be transferred onto a flexible and insulating polymeric substrate by compression molding. 

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