Electrospinning polyaniline nanofibers

Nanofibers can also be deposited directly on device substrates. Polyaniline being soluble, the electrospinning process has been successfully utilized for the production of polyaniline nanofibers [48]. However, this process cannot be directly employed for producing PPy nanofiber due to the intractability of PPy. 

Li M., Guo Y, Wei Y, MacDiarmid E. G., and Lelkes P. I., Electrospinning polyaniline-contained gelatin nanofibers for tissue engineering applications, Biomateriais, 2006,27,2705-2715. 

Although we have been able to electrospin polyaniline into nanofibers, polypyrrole is unable to be processed into homogenous textile fibers since this ICP is insoluble in common organic solvents and infusible, thus making thermal or solution processing difficult. To overcome this limitation. 

The conventional chemical polymerization of polyaniline only produces nonfibrous or irregular shaped morphologies [237,238], In the past several years, a variety of chemical methods were reported that yield polyaniline nanofibers, such as use of hard templates [239,240], soft templates [241], electrospinning [242], interfacial polymerization [237], and seeding polymerization [238]. Recently, Chiou and Epstein discovered that polyaniline nanofibers can be directly synthesized in dilute chemical polymerization... 

Miao YE, Fan W, Chen D, Liu TX (2013) High-performance supercapacitors based on hollow polyaniline nanofibers by electrospinning. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 5(10) 4423 428... 

Fig. 8.25 Row chart for the synthesis of polyaniline nanofibers prepared using electrospinning of polyaniline solution...

Fig. 8.26 Schematic diagram of electrospinning method to produce polyaniline nanofibers...

M. Diaz, N.J. Pinto, J. Gao, and A. G. MacDiarmid, Electrospinning nanofibers of polyaniline and polyaniline/(polystyrene and polyethylene oxide) blends, National Conference of Undergraduate Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington (2001). 

There are various methods to synthesize polymer nanostructures, i.e., template synthesis, chiral reactions, self-assembly, interfacial polymerization and electrospinning. Recent developments in conducting polymer nanotubes and nanofibers were summarized by Long et al. Different preparation methods, physical properties, and potential applications of one-dimensional nanostructures of conjugated polyaniline (PANI), pol5 3nrole (PPy) and poly (3, 4-ethylenediox3d hiophene) (PEDOT) were discussed. 

To improve PANI processability, the first approach to obtain polyaniline doped with camphorsulfonic acid (PANI-CSA) and doped nanofibers blended with common pol5miers by electrospinning was done by MacDiarmid s group. In another study a nonwoven mat was obtained by using a PANI/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) solution dissolved in chloroform. By controlling the ratio of PANI to PEO in the blend, fibers with conductivity values comparable to that of PANI-CSA/PEO cast films were produced. 

The acetone bath was used for the formation of pure polyaniline fibers by electrospinning method. " The fibres were collected in an acetone bath placed on the collector electrode. Because by placing the acetone bath make the excess of solvent to diffuse into the acetone allowing the pure polyaniline fiber formation. In another study, PANI/silica hybrid nanofiber webs were prepared by using... 

Electrospinning [29] is a facUe method to make almost any polymer into nano- and micro-fibers if the polymer can be solution-processed or melt-processed (Figure 7.4). However, due to the low solubility of polyaniline, it is very difficult to make polyaniline fibers thinner than 100 nm. To solve this problem, polyaniline is usually blended with a more soluble polymer to increase the weight percentage of polymer in solution. As a result, the obtained nanofibers are a polymer blend [29—33] this significantly reduces the conductivity of the polymer. Additionally, when the size of the fiber decreases, phase separation may occur, yielding a mixture of nanofibers of polyaniline and other polymers [33]. 

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