Retracted Article: Morphological evolution of polyaniline and its interaction with amphiphiles

Abstract

Electropolymerized polyaniline films have been reported to exhibit nanofibrillar morphology. However, upon increasing the electropolymerization time, the film’s surface morphology showed a change from nanofibrillar to granular. A similar morphological transition has been reported in case of the chemical synthesis of polyaniline. Overgrowth on initially formed nanofibers was proposed to be the reason behind this observation. Both nanofibers and granular polyaniline films were found to interact with negatively charged amphiphiles in a manner that amphiphilic assemblies got disassembled upon such an interaction. The rate of disassembly was, however, different for different polymer morphologies. Furthermore, the film surface showed hydrophobic and water drop adhesive properties due to the attached amphiphilic monomers. In addition, treatment of the amphiphile-attached polyaniline nanofibers and granules with organic solvents resulted in unwrapping of the overgrowth by chemical etching, and eventual formation of intermediate length nanowhiskers with decreased aspect ratios and increased surface areas. These nanowhiskers possessed average lengths of 40 nm to 120 nm, and average diameters of 10 nm to 40 nm.