Fabrication and evaluation of polyaniline nanofibers via ethyl cellulose template

The template method for polymerization has high potential for synthesizing polymer nanotubes, nanofibers, and nanobelts because it controls the diameter and length of the material microstructure. In this study, polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers were successfully prepared with ethyl cellulose as the template. The chemical constituents and crystallinity of the PANI nanofiber samples were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray powder diffraction. Sample morphology was characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The size uniformity and electrical conductivity of the PANI nanofibers were also determined. The electrical conductivity of the PANI nanofibers reached up to 13.5 S cm−1 at a hydrochloric acid concentration of 1 mol L−1. The PANI nanoparticles had uniform size, and the PANI nanofibers were disordered. The mechanism of ethyl cellulose as a template for synthesizing PANI nanofibers was also analyzed. This study provides a simple method for synthesizing uniform conductive PANI nanofibers.