Characterization of polyconjugated thin films synthesized by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition of aniline

We are exploring the use of hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HW-CVD) as an alternative, solvent-free technique to produce compact polyconjugated films from vaporized monomers. This work focuses on aniline as the monomer and utilizes a hot refractory metal to activate precursors. Infrared, X-ray photoelectron and UV–visible spectra have been obtained to characterize the molecular structure of the films produced by this method. The HW-CVD material is compared with conventional polyaniline as well as with films grown elsewhere by plasma-CVD and with a different vacuum-based method, using a NiCr filament, developed in our laboratory.