Conducting polypyrrole with nanoscale hierarchical structure

Conducting polypyrrole (PPy) with nanoscale hierarchical structure is chemically synthesized in an aqueous solution in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and 1,5-naphthalene disulfonic acid (1,5-NDA). The effect of synthetic conditions including concentration of CTAB and pyrrole, reaction temperature, oxidants and their introduced modes on the PPy hierarchical nanostructure is systematically investigated. A hypothesis for the hierarchical structure formation of PPy with the aid of CTAB/1,5-NDA/pyrrole supramolecular template is presented, in which the pyrrole is polymerized in imitation of the CTAB/1,5-NDA/pyrrole crystal shape. The electrochemical performances of representative PPy sample show that the PPy with hierarchical nanostructures has potential application as supercapacitor materials.