Tailoring of the self-organized structure of sulfonated polyaniline from a fibrillar network to a colloidal aggregate

Self-organized structures of the sodium salt of sulfonated polyaniline (prepared from the leucoemeraldine base of polyaniline) in the presence of a mixture of cationic and nonionic surfactants were studied. It was used in the latex form, which has been prepared using a conventional method with sodium dodecyl sulfate. The cationic surfactant used was didodecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide, and the nonionic surfactant used was Triton-X-100. The supramolecular organization was made in aqueous medium by varying the concentrations of the components. A three-dimensional fibrillar network and colloidal aggregate were produced due to the supramolecular organization. The thermal study indicated reversible first-order phase transition in the former cases fulfilling the criteria of thermoreversible gels. A probable explanation of the different morphology from the variation of charge density on the vesicle surface has been offered. The conductivity of fibrillar network is two orders higher than that of the colloidal aggregate.