INVESTIGATIONS ON CONDUCTING POLYANILINE NANOFIBERS

Abstract

The synthesis of (+) tartaric acid doped polyaniline has been done by oxidative chemical polymerization method. FTIR, UV-visible and scanning electron microscopy techniques have been used to characterize the polymeric samples prepared in the present work. It has been seen that the optical activity of the chiral polyaniline arise from preferential adsorption of a one-handed helical screw by developing polyaniline chains, depending upon the hand of the chiral {(+) tartaric acid} dopant anion. The chiral induction is believed to be initiated by specific electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interaction between radical cation -N.+ and amine –NH- sites of polyaniline chains with tartarate anion and carbonyl group, respectively. The electrical conductivity of the sample was measured using two probe multimeter (DM - 453) which ranges in semiconductors region.