Polyaniline nanofibers and composite materials for chemical detection

Recently we developed a simple, template-free chemical synthesis for polyaniline nanofibers that is selective for nanofibers, can be readily scaled to make large quantities and can be controlled to selectively produce nanofibers with narrow size distributions. Chemical sensors fabricated from polyaniline nanofibers have significantly better performance than conventional material in both sensitivity and time response. The high surface area, small diameter, and porous nature of the nanofiber films allow for facile diffusion of vapors, which is responsible for the enhanced performance. Most recently we have shown that composites with polyaniline are useful to detect analytes that do not give a significant response with unmodified polyaniline. These include fluoroalcohol additives for hydrazine detection and inorganics for hydrogen sulfide detection. Polyaniline nanofibers are superior materials that have excellent potential for many chemical detection applications.