Electro-synthesis and characterization of polyaniline nanofibers

An electro-synthesis method was developed by applying an electrostatic generator to assist the common solution polymerization and applied to fabricate polyaniline, PANI, nanofibers. Experimentally, the positive and negative electrodes were alternatively linked to either the ANI solution or the metal reactor to form two different electric cycles corresponding to the electrostatic interaction, EI, enhance (+/+, −/−) or reduce (+/−), respectively. FESEM images showed that these two EI conditions both can form the PANI nanofibers with similar average diameter at about 100nm, while the length is different because of the length formed by EI enhance longer than 1μm and by EI reduce in the range of 200–300nm. FTIR and XRD analyses indicated that the formation of PANI nanofibers under EI condition enhancing the C=C stretching of the quinoid rings and the amorphous area of PANI. •Electro-synthesis can control PANI nanostructure by alternating the electrode linkage.•The length of electro-synthesized PANI nanofibers could be formed greater than 1μm.•The electro-synthesized PANI nanofibers appeared liking an array.