Grafting of polyaniline onto surface of amino-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube via interfacial polymerization

Abstract

A mixture containing a significant proportion of polyaniline grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes was prepared by a two-step reaction sequence. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes were first functionalized with 4-aminobenzoic acid via a direct "Friedel-Crafts" acylation, yielding aminobenzoyl-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Then, aniline was polymerized via in-situ static interfacial polymerization in the presence of the aminobenzoyl-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the organic phase, yielding a mixture of polyaniline and polyaniline grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The mixture was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, wide-angle x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and cyclic voltammograms. Even without doping, the mixture displayed a semimetallic conductivity of 4.9 S/cm.