Conformational morphology of polyaniline grown on self-assembled monolayer modified silicon

Polyaniline (PANI) films with pyramidal shaped crystallites were prepared by self-organization on self-assembled monolayer (SAM) modified Si substrates. High-resolution atomic force microscopy (HR-AFM) shows that SAM has tridymite structural order and the PANI film has biphasic conformational morphology corresponding to face-on orientation and edge-on orientation. Order parameters obtained from power spectral density analysis of HR-AFM images of SAM and PANI films show that the pyramidal crystallites are in emeraldine salt (ES-I) form and the region between the crystallites is in emeraldine base (EB-II) form. The ordered lattice of PANI crystallites as observed by cross-sectional HR-TEM confirms its single crystalline nature as well as epitaxial growth. The heteroepitaxial growth of PANI is attributed to the structural order of interfacial SAM on Si. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.