Origin of templating processes in polypyrrole synthesis

The supermolecular mechanism of the template-mediated oxidative polymerization of pyrrole is investigated in detail. It is shown for the first time that 2,5-bis(pyrrol-2-yl)pyrrolidyl complexes with aromatic sulfonic acids such as β-naphtalenesulfonic acid or para-toluenesulfonic acid are formed in the early polymerization step. The crystalline acid–base complexes are isolated and their crystal structures are analyzed. A 2,5-bis(pyrrol-2-yl)pyrrolidyl cation is common to both complexes and forms an inner salt with the sulfonic acid anion. As concluded from NMR investigations the synthesis using sulfonic acids results in a high stereo selectivity with respect to the trans conformation of the pyrrolidyl ring compared with the classical synthesis routine of this compound using hydrochloric acid. The needle-like crystals of the complexes act as hard templates during the next step of the polymerization and result in tubular morphologies of the polypyrrole.