Nanostructure of polyaniline blends

The nanostructure of films of conductive blend polyaniline/cellulose acetate (PANI/CA) is investigated by two real-space imaging techniques: transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The heterogeneous nature of the disorder suggested by electronic transport measurements is clearly evidenced. Moreover the clustering process of PANI is shown to be anisotropic, with a preferential orientation in the plane of the film. For PANI content above 3% wt., the film surface is covered by PANI to a large extent, and surface segregation is sometimes observed.