Fabrication and characterization of urchin-like polyaniline microspheres using lignosulfonate as template

An urchin-like conducting microsphere was fabricated by synthesizing polyaniline, PANI, with lignosulfonate, LGS. FESEM images showed that this special PANI structure was controllably formed because the pure PANI presented only a nanofiber formed mat, and the PANI/LGS mixture with the ANI/LGS ratio (%) at 36/1 and 18/1 formed spheres while the PANI nanofibers lied on spherical surface, and only at 9/1 led the PANI nanofiber to stand on sphere surface in the urchin-like structure. Taking the pure PANI as a reference, the urchin-like PANI/LGS microsphere has been found to have enhanced conductivity and thermal stability.