Abstract:

Helical polyaniline nanofibers were prepared by a facilel interface polymerization method with chiral regents D- and L-camphorsulfonic acid(D- and L-CSA) as dopants and conformation inducer. The as-prepared helical polyaniline nanofibers were characterized by FESEM, TEM, FTIR, UV-Vis spectroscopies. The results show that relatively uniform polyaniline nanofibers with a helical conformation and higher ratio of length to diameter(6∶1~12∶1) could be readily obtained by means of this method, the average diameter and the lengths were about 50 nm and in a range of 300~600 nm, respectively. The helical polyaniline nanofibers exist in more expanded coil molecular conformation in aqueous solution and show reversible dopingdedoping nature along with the change of pH value of solution. Cyclic voltammetry tests show that the helical polyaniline nanofibers exhibit good electrochemical activity in a 0.5 mol/L HCl aqueous solution.

Key words: chiral dopant, helical polyaniline, nanofibers； interface polymerization