Polyaniline in nano- and bulk applications
In this conference, the use of polyaniline PANI in the preparation of random and oriented nanofiber mats using the electospinning technique is investigated. In fact, the main challenge in preparation of those mats resides in achieving high and adjustable content of PANI.
The spinnable solution should be non-agglomerated with no need to perform further filtration that might lead to wrong estimation of PANI content in the mat.
This conference addresses this issue and reports the preparation and characterization of mats of polyaniline and polylactic acid, PANI/PLLA with adjustable and high content of PANI in the mats, 40% wt [1].
The preparation of PANi@PLLA mats by bulk oxidative solution polymerization of PANI onto electrospun non-woven fibers mats of PLLA is also investigated [2].
The comparison of the two types of mats will be discussed. These mats have potential applications in neural/bone tissue engineering as the simultaneous presence of electric stimulation with topographical cues could provide guidance for axonal extension/osteoblasts outgrowth.
On the other hand, this conference also investigates on the synergistic effect of use of PANI with nanoferrites for the design of a new generation of microwave absorbers. Actually, the new trend in the design of microwave absorbers is towards the preparation lightweight, broadband absorbers that have minimum reflection loss with tunable matching frequency [3,4].
This conference will present an attempt to solve this task by the preparation of multiconponent absorbers with dielectric and magnetic loss [5,6]. It will also highlight the role of core-shell structures of PANI@ferrites for the preparation of microwave absorbers.