M. Ilic et al., Adsorption and polymerization of aniline on Cu(II)-montmorillonite: Vibrational spectroscopy and ab initio calculation, LANGMUIR, 16(23), 2000, pp. 8946-8951
Batch adsorption experiments in the presence of oxygen were performed to st
udy the interlayer reactions of aniline on Cu(II)-montmorillonite in aqueou
s solutions. At concentrations below a critical value of C-G = 2.6 mmol dm(
-3) only a colored Cu(II)-aniline complex is for med, characterized by a st
ability constant of log(K-assoc/dm(3) mol(-1)) = 1.5. At concentrations bey
ond C-c aniline polymerizes yielding a dark brown product, which is identif
ied by two vibrational spectroscopy techniques, attenuated total reflection
Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and FT-Raman spectrosco
py. Vibrational assignment of aniline, polyaniline, and the interlayer reac
tion products of aniline at Cu(II)-montmorillonite was achieved by a compar
ison of the band position and intensity observed in the ATR and FT-Raman sp
ectra with wavenumbers and intensities (IR and Raman) from ab initio quantu
m-mechanical calculations. Density functional theory (DFT, B3LYP/6-31G*) ha
s been used to calculate the geometry, frequencies, and intensities (LR and
Raman) of aniline. The geometry and vibrational calculations of a four-rin
g unit (emeraldine base, EB) are believed to be a good representation of th
e polyaniline at Cu(II)-montmorillonite. The geometry of EB was fully optim
ized at the Hartree-Fock level of theory. The data of polyaniline presented
suggest that IR and Raman data calculated ab initio on relatively short ol
igomers (quantum-mechanical oligomer approach) may provide valuable informa
tion regarding the interpretation of vibrational spectra of polymers. From
the comparison of experiments and calculations, it is concluded that a cata
lytic/intercalation polymerization of aniline to polyaniline took place ins
ide the interlayer of the Cu(II)-montmorillonite clay mineral.