Los Alamos National Security, LLC

University of California

Board of Governors for Higher Education, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

Wenguang Li

Hsing-Lin Wang

James A Bailey

Yuan Gao

Sze Cheng Yang

Metal-polyaniline (PANI) composites are provided together with a process of preparing such composites by an electrodeless process. The metal of the composite can have nanoscale structural features and the composites can be used in applications such as catalysis for hydrogenation reactions and for analytical detection methods employing SERS.

Nanostructured metal-polyaniline composites and applications thereof

Nanostructured metal-polyaniline composites

An process of forming a chiral conducting polymer, e.g., polyaniline, is provided including reacting a monomer, e.g., an aniline monomer, in the presence of a chiral dopant acid to produce a first reaction mixture by addition of a solution including a first portion of an oxidizing agent, the first portion of oxidizing agent characterized as insufficient to allow complete reaction of the monomer, and further reacting the first reaction mixture in the presence of the chiral dopant acid by addition of a solution including a second portion of the oxidizing agent, the second portion of oxidizing agent characterized as insufficient to allow complete reaction of the monomer, and repeating the reaction by addition of further portions of the oxidizing agent until the monomer reaction is complete to produce a chiral conducting polymer, e.g., polyaniline. A preferred process includes addition of a catalyst during the reaction, the catalyst selected from among the group consisting of phenylene diamine, aniline oligomers and amino-capped aniline oligomers and metal salts. The processes of the present invention further provide a resultant polyaniline product having a chirality level defined by a molar ellipticity of from about 40&#xd7;10degree-cm/decimole to about 700&#xd7;10degree-cm/decimole. The processes of the present invention further provide a resultant polyaniline product having a nanofiber structure with a diameter of from about 30 nanometers to about 120 nanometers and from about 1 micron to about 5 microns in length.

Chemical synthesis of chiral conducting polymers

A method of forming metal nanoparticles using a polymer colloid that includes at least one conductive polymer and at least one polyelectrolyte. Metal ions are reduced in water by the conductive polymer to produce the nanoparticles, which may be then incorporated in the colloidal structure to form a colloid composite. The method can also be used to separate selected metal ions from aqueous solutions.

Catalytic synthesis of metal crystals using conductive polymers

A electrically conductive polymeric composition comprising a plurality of polymeric complexes. Each polymeric complex comprises a strand of a &pgr;-conjugated polymer and strand of a polyelectrolyte. The polyelectrolyte is non-covalently bond to the &pgr;-conjugated polymer and has at least one reactive functional group that facilitates cross-linkage between the polymeric complexes when the polymeric complexes are heated.

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Los Alamos, NM, United States of America

Wenguang Li