Characterising the chemical interactions that occur on polyaniline with inverse thin layer chromatography

Inverse thin layer chromatography is used to characterise the chemical interactions that occur on polyaniline that has been electrochemically deposited on to a support. Amino acids are used as the molecular probe species by which the retention behaviour can be related to particular chemical interactions. The mobile phase is also varied, with respect to its polarity and pH, in order to add a further dimension to the qualitative information that is obtained. Anion exchange interactions are found to be the dominant interaction type. However, the behaviour seems to be different to that which occurs on conventional anion exchange materials. The behaviour was dependent upon the number of negative sites and also their spatial arrangement. A configurational‐selective ionic interaction with the polaron lattice of the polyaniline is proposed. The response of the anion exchange behaviour to a change of pH suggested that protonated sites remained within the polymer, even at high pH values (c 9).