Engineering crystalline quasi-two-dimensional polyaniline thin film with enhanced electrical and chemiresistive sensing performances

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 4225 - 9
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tao, Qi, Haoyuan, Liao, Zhongquan, Horev, Yehu David, Panes-Ruiz, Luis Antonio, Petkov, Petko St, Zhang, Zhe, Shivhare, Rishi, Zhang, Panpan, Liu, Kejun, Bezugly, Viktor, Liu, Shaohua, Zheng, Zhikun, Mannsfeld, Stefan, Heine, Thomas, Cuniberti, Gianaurelio, Haick, Hossam, Zschech, Ehrenfried, Kaiser, Ute, Dong, Renhao, Feng, Xinliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 23.09.2019; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Air-water interface; Ammonia; Aniline; Charge transport; Chemical synthesis; Conducting polymers; Crystal structure; Crystallinity; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Electroactive materials; Electronics; Engineering; Homogeneity; Hydrogen chloride; Oligomers; Organic chemistry; Organic compounds; Polyanilines; Polymer films; Thickness; Thin films; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11921-3

Engineering conducting polymer thin films with morphological homogeneity and long-range molecular ordering is intriguing to achieve high-performance organic electronics. Polyaniline (PANI) has attracted considerable interest due to its appealing electrical conductivity and diverse chemistry. However, the synthesis of large-area PANI thin film and the control of its crystallinity and thickness remain challenging because of the complex intermolecular interactions of aniline oligomers. Here we report a facile route combining air-water interface and surfactant monolayer as templates to synthesize crystalline quasi-two-dimensional (q2D) PANI with lateral size ~50 cm and tunable thickness (2.6-30 nm). The achieved q2D PANI exhibits anisotropic charge transport and a lateral conductivity up to 160 S cm doped by hydrogen chloride (HCl). Moreover, the q2D PANI displays superior chemiresistive sensing toward ammonia (30 ppb), and volatile organic compounds (10 ppm). Our work highlights the q2D PANI as promising electroactive materials for thin-film organic electronics.