Organic Chemistry of Polyanilines: Tailoring Properties to Technological Applications

The use of organic chemistry reactions to introduce additional functional groups on polyanilines is described. Among the reactions discussed are: electrophilic aromatic substitution, nucleophilic addition to the aromatic rings, nu- cleophilic substitution on the amine groups and reactions on pendant groups. The use of combinatorial chemistry tech- niques, by coupling of combinatorially synthesised diazonium salts with polyaniline, to produce a functionalized polyani- lines library is also reviewed. The modification of polyaniline introduces or alters different properties of the materials: solubility, self-doping and redox coupled ion exchange. The tailoring of those properties to technical applications is there- fore examined.