Processibility of electrically conductive polyaniline due to molecular recognition

Tailoring of the specific interactions between electrically conductive polyaniline and organic compounds allows novel means to achieve high solubility. The phenyl rings and the hydrogen bonding moieties of sulphonic acid doped PANI have a periodicity of ca. 6 angstroms. Strong specific interaction leading to high solubility can be achieved by compounds which contain complementary sterically fitting interactions. Such fit is called molecular recognition in biochemistry. Based on these ideas, a large class of novel solvents for sulphonic acid protonated PANI are found, including dihydroxy benzenes, phenyl phenols and bisphenols. A detailed study on PANI(DBSA)_0.5 mixtures with resorcinol is reported. The high solubility of PANI(CSA)_0.5 in m-cresol can be explained as a limiting case.