Morphology studies of polyaniline lengthy nanofibers formed via dimers copolymerization approach

In this paper, two different aniline dimers, N-phenyl-1,2-phenylenediamine (2-PPD) and N-phenyl-1,4-phenylenediamine (4-PPD) were used as starting monomers in polyaniline (PANI) synthesis. It was found that 2-PPD dimer alone produced only an amorphous PANI oligomer with a flaky morphology, while the 4-PPD provided either linear nanofiber or a spaghetti-like hollow nanofiber structures comprising of worm-like fibril subunits. By adjusting the molar fed ratio of 4-PPD to 2-PPD in the copolymerization, long PANI nanofibers with length up to tens of microns, bundled together by single PANI fibrils with diameter ca. 3–5 nm, was formed. A possible formation mechanism was proposed taking account of the reactivity difference at positions 4 and 2 on the 4-PPD and 2-PPD, respectively.