Investigation of ordering in polyaniline salt films prepared from hexafluoroisopropanol solutions

Hexafluoroisopropanol has proved to be a useful solvent for salts of the emeraldine form of polyaniline prepared from a number of sulfonic acids. Large peaks at relatively small X-ray scattering angles establish the presence of domains containing a periodicity with a spacing in the 1–3 nm range. The spacings suggest that the emeraldine chains are separated by distances equivalent to two anion lengths. The domain size in the direction of periodicity indicate that only 2–4 repeat units are involved. Neither the X-ray scattering nor results obtained from neutron reflectometry show evidence for preferential orientation of the domains.