Liquid crystalline assemblies from self-doped polyanilines

Self-doped polyaniline derivatives were synthesized from the electrochemical oxidations of modified aniline monomers. Assynthesized poly(n-anilino-1-alkanesulfonate)s (PANAS) were found to form liquid crystalline solutions in water. The interesting anisotropic behavior was inferred from the observation of the focal conic entities identifiable from the polarized microscope and XRD peaks at low angles, which indicated the polymer solutions possess orientational and positional order. Spectroscopic analysis indicated that the imino-quinone centers of the doped polymer was essential for the packing of the polymer chain.