Thin films of polyaniline deposited by MAPLE technique

Polyaniline (PAni) has important electro-conductive properties, high absorbance in microwave range and it is also frequently used in gas sensors because of its capability to convert chemical interactions into electrical signals. The methods of obtaining polyaniline in the form of thin films and/ or nanostructures are complicated and request special physical and chemical treatments, both on the substrate surface and for the polymer itself. In this paper we applied matrix assisted pulsed lased evaporation (MAPLE) for obtaining thin films and nanostructures of polyaniline. In MAPLE, the target consisting of the material (usually 0.2–3 wt%) dissolved in a solvent is frozen and it is evaporated using a laser. In our case polyaniline–emeraldine salt (PAni–ES) was dissolved in xylene or toluene, frozen in liquid nitrogen and was used as target. The third and the fourth harmonics of a Nd–YAG laser (l = 355 nm and 266 nm) were used as laser sources. The obtained films have been characterized by atomic force microscopy, dielectric spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The influence of the solvent type and of the laser parameters (wavelengths and fluence) on the polyaniline structures composition and properties has been investigated.