Complete alignment of polyaniline monolayers on muscovite mica: epitaxial effects of a lattice-matched substrate

Totally aligned monolayers of the conducting polymer, polyaniline, have bee n deposited 'epitaxially' on a lattice-matched 'Moscovite' mica substrate u sing an in-situ deposition method in aqueous solution. The polyaniline mole cules have a repeat unit that is an excellent match to the imica surface ox ygen spacing, Images of the monolayers, recorded by atomic force microscopy , show that the polyaniline molecules align parallel to each other on the m ica and that the interchain alignment appears to be strong influenced by ni trogen atoms on adjacent polyaniline molecules that line up to form highly ordered rows of nitrogen atoms between chains. These results suggest the po ssibility of growing multilayer crystalline films which would be expected t o have significantly higher conductivity compared with the more typical dis ordered polyaniline thin films. Ordered films could also promote and enhanc e the performance of a large variety of electronic devices where conducting polymers are the active material. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All right s reserved.