Nanocomposites of Polyaniline and Cellulose Nanocrystals Prepared in Lyotropic Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Stable lyotropic chiral nematic liquid crystals (N * -LCs) of cellulose nanocrystals (CNs) were prepared via hydrolysis using sulfuric acid. The lyotropic N * -LCs were used as an asymmetric reaction field to synthesize polyaniline (PANI) onto CNs by in situ polymerization. As a primary step, we examined the mesophase transition of the N * -LCs of CNs suspension before and after in situ polymerization of aniline (ANI) by polarizing optical microscopy. The structure of nanocomposites of PANI/CNs was investigated at a microscopic level using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Influence of the CNs-to-ANI ratio on the morphology of the nanocomposites was also investigated at macroscopic level by scanning electron and transmission electron microscopies. It is found that the weight ratio of CNs to aniline in the suspension significantly influenced the size of the PANI particles and interaction between CNs and PANI. Moreover, electrical properties of the obtained PANI/CNs films were studied using standard four-probe technique. It is expected that the lyotropic N * -LCs of CNs might be available for an asymmetric reaction field to produce novel composites of conjugated materials.

Production of conductive bacterial cellulose-polyaniline membranes in the presence of metal salts

“…52 This is consistent with the results reported previously that the structural ordering of BC improves its electrical conductivity. 12,53 The XRD results showed that the copper salt improved the degree of crystallinity of the BC-PANI membrane.

Figure 5.XRD patterns of (a) untreated BC, (b) BC-PANI, and (c) BC-PANI-Cu (polymerization conditions: 0.05% (w/v) of copper (II) sulfate, pH of the DBSA solution = 2.5, DBSA:aniline:APS = 1:1:1, 20℃, 24 h).

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“…52 This is consistent with the results reported previously that the structural ordering of BC improves its electrical conductivity. 12,53 The XRD results showed that the copper salt improved the degree of crystallinity of the BC-PANI membrane.…”

A Surfactant Directed Microcrystalline Cellulose/Polyaniline Composite with Enhanced Electrochemical Properties

“…In many studies composites of PAni/cellulose with enhanced physical and electrochemical properties were used in high capacity biodegradable batteries [ 1 , 12 , 13 ], chemical sensors [ 14 ], and electroactive paper [ 15 ]. In biosensor applications, crystalline nano-cellulose (CNC) was introduced into the polymer structure to provide a larger active surface area and higher specific strength [ 16 ].…”

“…A cholesterol biosensor based on polyaniline and gold nanocomposite was successfully fabricated using a seed-mediated method [ 12 ]. Liu et al [ 17 ] engineered a flexible and electrically conductive nanocellulose-based polyaniline composite film.…”

A Nanocellulose Polypyrrole Composite Based on Tunicate Cellulose

“…Unfortunately, the PPy nanoparticles without the protection of stabilizers are likely to aggregate to some extent in a few minutes, leading to instability [8]. Deposition of conducting polymers on fiber surface of fabrics, such as xylan [9], cotton [10], bacteria cellulose (BC) [1], cellulose microcrystal (CMC) [11], and cellulose derivatives 2 International Journal of Polymer Science [12][13][14], has been widely investigated in the last few years due to its importance in emerging technologies. These materials were generally obtained through in situ oxidative polymerization of pyrrole by introducing an oxidant agent such as ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ) or ammonium persulfate (APS) [9,12,15,16].…”