Sub-micrometer Conducting Polyaniline Tubes Prepared from Polymer Fiber Templates

Polyaniline tubes have been prepared using sub-micrometer polymer fibers as templates. The core fibers were fabricated by a nonmechanical electrostatic process known as electrospinning. Conductive polyaniline (PANi) was coated on the surface of preformed polymer nanofibers through in situ deposition. The removal of the core from the resulting PANi coaxial fibers by pyrolysis leads to the formation of PANi tubular materials, which undergo reversible doping between the conducting and insulating phase with acid or base.