A novel approach for the synthesis of polyaniline nanostructures using swollen liquid crystal templates

Polyaniline nanostructures (PANI-NS) have been synthesized successfully using swollen liquid crystals (SLCs) as a soft template. SLCs were formed by quaternary systems containing either sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant, 1-pentanol as co-surfactant, aqueous solution of aniline hydrochloride as salted medium and cyclohexane as oil. Polymerization was achieved by using ammonium persulphate (APS) as oxidizing agent. PANI-NS of different morphologies can be obtained by tuning the way APS is mixed with the aniline hydrochloride containing mesophases. The prepared PANI-NS were thoroughly characterized using FESEM, UV-visible spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy.