An enzymatically synthesized conducting molecular complex of polyaniline and poly(vinylphosphonic acid)

Enzymatic synthesis of a conducting complex of polyaniline (PANI)-poly(viny lphosphonic acid) (PVP) Is presented. The polymerization of aniline was car ried out in an aqueous buffer at pH 4.0 using the enzyme horseradish peroxi dase (HRP) as the biocatalyst in the presence of a PVP polyanion template. The formation of the conducting and electroactive form of the PVP-PANI comp lex was confirmed through W-vis and FTIR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, four-point probe conductivity measurements, and thermogravimetric analysis. Appropriate control of polymerization could be used to tune the water solu bility and conductivity of the final PVP-PANI macromolecular complex. This template-guided enzymatic reaction is a unique approach for the controllabl e polymerization of aniline to the electroactive form under milder and envi ronmentally compatible conditions. In this work, PVP was chosen as the poly electrolyte to demonstrate both versatility with other templates and as a p roof-of-concept for extension of this approach to other more delicate phosp hate/phosphonic acid containing biological polyelectrolytes such as DNA.