ALTERNATIVE CONCEPT OF THE TRANSITION EMERALDINE BASE EMERALDINE SALT

The transition of the emeraldine base (EB) to the emeraldine salt (ES) form of polyaniline (PANI) is in fact a redox process [GRAPHICS] where 'EB' does not represent the emeraldine oxidation state. This redox process itself is an intermediate stage in the transition of insulating pernigraniline to conducting emeraldine. Generally, transition of PANI from insulating (leucoemeraldine, L, or pernigraniline, PN) to conducting (emeraldine, E) state could be represented by the following scheme:(~)[GRAPHICS]