Hydrophobic and high adhesive polyaniline layer of rectangular microtubes fabricated by a modified interfacial polymerization

Abstract A modified interfacial polymerization of aniline is developed to fabricate hydrophobic and adhesive polyaniline (PANI) layer of rectangular microtubes on the glass substrate. The modified method uses pentanol as an organic medium to dissolve aniline monomer, with the water film of oxidant and surfactant on the glass substrate as water phase. The effects of some synthetic parameters (such as monomer concentration, alcohol molecular structure and surfactant type) on the morphology of PANI layer are studied for better understanding the fabrication of PANI nanostructures on the film. The alcohol molecular structure plays key role for the supermolecular assembly of PANI chains into nanostructures, while the surfactant may direct the array and deposition of these nanostructures on the glass substrate. The formation reason of PANI rectangular sub-microtubes is roughly interpreted according to our previous works. Wettability experiment indicates that the as-prepared PANI layer exhibits excellent hydrophobicity and high adhesive properties to water drop.