A facile synthetic strategy for mesoporous crystalline copper-polyaniline composite

A facile and novel strategy for preparing mesoporous crystalline copper-polyaniline composite is reported wherein the reaction is carried out at room temperature using copper nitrate as the oxidizing agent and methanol as the solvent. The composite obtained as a precipitate has been characterized using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption method, Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method (BET) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The XRD studies in conjunction with the BJH method reveals that the composite has crystalline nature with a mesoporous structure and has a diameter of 3.5 nm. The specific surface area of copper-polyaniline composite is estimated to be as high as 63.2 m 2 g -1 using the BET surface area plot. The characterization of the filtrate indicates the presence of pernigraniline with a very small weight percent of copper. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.