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Growth and alignment of polyaniline nanofibres with superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic and other properties

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 354–357 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Polyaniline nanofibres can be prepared by a number of methods based on chemical oxidative polymerization1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and in situ adsorption polymerization4,5,6. However, the lack of alignment in these nanostructures makes them unsuitable for many applications. Here, we report a simple approach to chemical oxidative polymerization that can control the growth and simultaneous alignment of polyaniline nanofibres grown on a range of conducting and non-conducting substrates in a wide variety of sizes. The diameters of the tips of the nanofibres can be controlled within the range 10–40 nm, and the average length can be controlled within the range 70–360 nm. Moreover, the coatings display a range of properties including superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity. Such nanostructured coatings may be useful for applications such as anti-fog coatings, self-cleaning surfaces, DNA manipulation, transparent electrodes for low-voltage electronics, and chemical and biological sensors.

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Figure 1: Highly uniform, transparent thin film of aligned polyaniline nanofibres grown on a PET overhead transparency.
Figure 2: SEM images of aligned polyaniline nanofibres grown on an overhead transparency.
Figure 3: Superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces.

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Acknowledgements

The present work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under NSF Grant No. EEC-0425626.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210-1180, Ohio, USA

    Nan-Rong Chiou, Chunmeng Lu & L. James Lee

  2. The Center for Affordable Nanoengineering of Polymer Biomedical Devices, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210-1180, Ohio, USA

    Nan-Rong Chiou, Jingjiao Guan, L. James Lee & Arthur J. Epstein

  3. Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210-1117, Ohio, USA

    Nan-Rong Chiou & Arthur J. Epstein

  4. Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210-1185, Ohio, USA

    Arthur J. Epstein

Authors
  1. Nan-Rong Chiou
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  2. Chunmeng Lu
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  4. L. James Lee
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  5. Arthur J. Epstein
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Contributions

N.-R.C. and A.J.E. were responsible for the fabrication, coatings and characterization of aligned nanofibres and related analyses. The superhydrophilicity, superhydrophobicity and microfabrication were studied by C.L., N.-R.C. and L.J.L. DNA stretching was studied by J.G., N.-R.C. and L.J.L. N.-R.C. and A.J.E. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Arthur J. Epstein.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chiou, NR., Lu, C., Guan, J. et al. Growth and alignment of polyaniline nanofibres with superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic and other properties. Nature Nanotech 2, 354–357 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.147

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