Enzymatically Synthesized Conducting Polyaniline Nanocomposites: A Solid‐State NMR Study

Abstract

The chiral conducting polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites [polyacrylic acid/polyaniline/(−) camphorsulphonic acid (CSA)] were synthesized using enzyme, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in the aqueous buffer solution at pH 4.3. It appears that the enzyme HRP apart being a biocatalyst, plays an important role during the polymerization, which allows PANI to prefer a specific helical conformation whether the induced chirality in the monomer‐CSA complex is either by (+)CSA or (−)CSA. In this paper, we report, the structural characterization of these nanocomposites by solid‐state ¹³C cross‐polarization with magic angle spinning (CP/MAS) NMR techniques. The structural features of PANI in the conducting form of nanocomposite (as‐synthesized) are similar to that of enzymatically and chemically synthesized PANI. Preliminary data also suggest that some portion of nanocomposite samples are not completely doped. Dedoping of as‐synthesized PANI nanocomposite with aqueous NH₄OH shows the spectral features that of the emeraldine base form. Solid‐state ¹³C NMR data suggest that it is possible to detach PAA and CSA from PANI in the nanocomposite material.

Keywords:

• Solid‐state ¹³C NMR CP/MAS NMR
• Conducting polyaniline
• Nanocomposites
• Enzymatic polymerization

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the National Science Foundation for a research grant (Grant #DMR‐9986644). We thank Dr. Ramaswamy Nagarajan for conductivity measurement, Mr. Xiadong Wu and Mr. Jeff Njus for helpful discussions. This work is dedicated to memory of the late Professor S. K. Tripathy.