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Structure and properties of conducting bacterial cellulose-polyaniline

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Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294
DOI 10.1007/s10570-011-9565-4

Structure and properties of conducting bacterial

cellulose-polyaniline nanocomposites
Jessica A. Marins • Bluma G. Soares •
Karim Dahmouche • Sidney J. L. Ribeiro •

Hernane Barud • Denise Bonemer

Received: 8 February 2011 / Accepted: 6 June 2011 / Published online: 15 June 2011
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Abstract Conducting composite membranes of cellulose-polyaniline conducting membranes which

bacterial cellulose (BC) and polyaniline doped with
dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (PAni.DBSA) were
successfully prepared by the in situ chemical poly-
merization of aniline in the presence of hydrated BC
sheets. The polymerization was performed with
ammonium peroxydisulfate as the oxidant agent and
different amounts of DBSA. The composites were
characterized by X-ray diffraction, attenuation reflec-
tance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scan-
ning electron microscopy (SEM), impedance
spectroscopy and small angle X ray scattering
(SAXS). The highest electrical conductivity value
was achieved by using a DBSA/aniline molar ratio of
1.5 because this condition provided a better penetra-
tion of PAni.DBSA chains inside the hydrated BC
sheet, as observed by SEM. The in situ polymeriza-
tion gives rise to conducting membranes with the
surface constituted by different degree roughness as
indicated by Nyquist plots obtained from impedance
spectroscopy and confirmed by SAXS measurements.
This preliminary work provides a new way to prepare
J. A. Marins  B. G. Soares (&)  K. Dahmouche
Centro de Tecnologia, Instituto de Macromoléculas—
UFRJ, Bl. J, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro,
RJ 21945-970, Brazil
e-mail: bluma@ima.ufrj.br
S. J. L. Ribeiro  H. Barud  D. Bonemer
Instituto de Quı́mica—UNESP, Araraquara,
SP 14801-970, Brazil
find potential applications as electronic devices,
sensors, intelligent clothes, etc.
Keywords Bacterial cellulose  Polyaniline 
Nano-composite  SAXS  Impedance spectroscopy
Introduction
Conducting nanomaterials have been attracted great
scientific interest due to the increasing demand of
new technologies for the development of electronic
devices, sensors, intelligent clothes, to be employed
in several fields including biology, medicine, defense,
agriculture, etc. In this context, cellulose nanofibers
appear as very promising support materials for
conductive additives due to their high strength and
stiffness associated to renewability, biocompatibility
and biodegradability, among other important proper-
ties (Dufresne and Belgacem 2010; Kamel 2007;
Klemm et al. 2006a; Siro and Plackett 2010).
Nanocellulose can be mainly obtained from plant
sources in the form of microfibrils, microfibrillated
cellulose and cellulose whiskers, (Holt et al. 2010),
from green algae (Stromme et al. 2002) and also
directly from extracellular secretion of certain bacte-
ria, being Gluconacetobacter Xylinus one of the most
productive (Klemm et al. 2006b). Both bacterial (BC)

123
1286
and plant cellulose are constituted by b-D-glucopyr-
anose units linked by 1-4glycosidic bonds. However,
the nanostructure of BC is obtained directly from the
bacteria, without treatment. BC is secreted as a
ribbon-shaped fibril, less than 100 nm wide. These
fibers are composed of bundles of much fine micro-
fibrils of nanometric size (Brown and Laborie 2007;
Iguchi et al. 2000; Klemm et al. 2001, 2005). This
microbiological procedure gives rise to cellulose
nanofibers of high purity (free of lignin and hemi-
celluloses), high degree of polymerization, high
crystallinity, high water content and high mechanical
stability. All these unique physical and mechanical
properties determine its wide range of applications,
including high quality audio membranes (Cannon and
Anderson 1991), temporary skin substitution (Farah
1990), electronic paper (Shah and Brown 2005) etc.
For all these reasons, it appears us interesting to
develop new conducting nanofiber-based materials
constituted by polyaniline coated on BC nanofiber
surface.
Several papers deal with the preparation of cellu-
lose-based conducting materials. Some of them
involve the ‘‘in situ’’ polymerization of pyrrole (Py)
or aniline (Ani) in the presence of cellulose pulp
suspension (Johnston et al. 2006; Kelly et al. 2007;
Qian et al. 2010), pulp fibers and papers (Johnston et al.
2005; Stejskal et al. 2008; Goto 2011), wood or
sawdust (Ansari and Pornahad 2010; Sapurina et al.
2005; Stejskal et al. 2007) microfibrillated cellulose
(Nystrom et al. 2010) or individual cellulose fibers
extracted from Cladofora green algae (Mihranyan et al.
2008). Also a chemical polymerization—induced
adsorption process was employed for obtaining con-
ducting polymers uniformly coated on cellulose fiber
from commercial filter paper (Huang et al. 2005).
Other systems consist of a mixture of cellulose
whiskers suspension with polyaniline (PAni) solution
(van den Berg et al. 2007) or a dipping of microfibr-
illated cellulose aerogel in a PAni solution (Paakko
et al. 2008).
The use of BC on the development of conducting
materials is not common. There are few publications,
most of them focused on the combination of BC with
carbon nanotubes (Chen et al. 2010; Yan et al. 2008;
Yoon et al. 2006). Silver nanoparticles were also
impregnated into BC through the in situ Ag? reduc-
tion aiming to develop antimicrobial membranes
(Barud et al. 2008; Maneerung et al. 2008; Santa
123
Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294
Maria et al. 2009, 2010). Few months ago, when we
were preparing this paper, it appeared in the open
literature an interesting paper, and perhaps the first
one, dealing with the chemical ‘‘in situ’’ polymeriza-
tion of pyrrole on BC nanofiber (Müller et al. 2011).
The present work presents for the first time the
preparation and characterization of conducting nano-
material by in situ chemical polymerization of aniline
in the presence of hydrated BC pellicle, aiming future
technological applications in electronics and optics.
The influence of the content of dodecylbenzenyl-
sulfonic acid used in the polyaniline synthesis on
structure and properties of the composites has been
investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and
conductivity. The nanostructure was also evaluated
by small angle X-ray scattering.
Experimental
Materials
Aniline (Ani) (analytical grade, Merck) was distilled
twice under vacuum and stored under nitrogen in a
refrigerator. Ammonium peroxydisulfate (APS) (ana-
lytical grade, Isofar), dodecylbenzenylsulfonic acid
(DBSA) (Fluka, 90%) and ethanol (92.8%, Vetec)
were used without purification. Hydrated Bacterial
cellulose (BC) samples were provided by FibrocelÒ
Products Bio- technological LTDA, (Ibiporã, Paraná-
Brazil). Bacterium G. xylinus cultivation was con-
ducted for 96 h at 28 °C in trays of 30 9 50 cm
dimension, containing a sterile medium with the
following basic composition: glucose 2% (w/v),
bactopeptone 0.5% (w/v), yeast extracts 0.5%, anhy-
drous disodium phosphate 0.27% (w/v) and citric
acid monohydrate 0.115% (w/v). After 69 h, highly
hydrated BC blankets with an average thickness of
4 mm were produced. The obtained BC hydrogels
were washed in water, immersed in 1 wt% aqueous
NaOH at 70 °C to remove the bacteria and their
residues, and thoroughly washed in distilled water
until neutral pH.
Synthesis of BC-polyaniline composites
BC-Pani.DBSA nanocomposites were prepared in
ethanol/water (40:60 vol%) medium. Pre-established
Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294 1287

Table 1 Recipes for the Pani.DBSA and their BC-based the diffractogram through the Ruland’s method
composites syntheses (Ruland 1961).
Code BC Ani APS DBSA Electrical conductivity measurements and NyQuist
(cm3) (mmol) (mmol) (mmol) plots were carried out using a Potentiostat galvanostat
analyzer AutoLAB in the frequency range of 10 to
PAni1 – 2.50 2.50 10.00
1 MHz and 10 mA at room temperature. The samples
PAni2 – 2.50 2.50 3.75
in the form of discs of 1 mm diameter were used.
PAni3 – 2.50 2.50 2.50
The microstructure of the composites was charac-
PAniBC1 30 2.50 2.50 10.00
terized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The
PAniBC2 30 2.50 2.50 3.75
films surfaces were analyzed by field emission SEM
PAniBC3 30 2.50 2.50 2.50
(FEG-SEM, JEOL—7500F) operating at at 2 kV. The
fracture surface was observed in a JEOL JSM 5600
Scanning electron microscope, operating at 15 kV. In
amounts of DBSA (Table 1) were mixed with 100 mL both cases, the surfaces were sputtered with carbon
ethanol/water solution. Then, 0.23 g (2.5 mmol) of and analyzed with the help of a secondary electron
aniline was added and the resulting solution was (SEI) detector.
stirred at room temperature for homogenization. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed
Hydrated BC membrane with 5 9 6 9 1 cm3 dimen- on a Q50 thermobalance from TA Instruments Inc.
sion was immersed into the Ani/DBSA solution for The samples were heated from 30 to 700 °C, at a
15 min under magnetic stirring, in order to promote heating rate of 20 °C/min, under nitrogen flow.
the penetration of the reagents (Ani and DBSA) inside The small angle X ray scattering (SAXS) exper-
the BC hydrogel. The polymerization was carried out iments were carried out at the SAXS beam line of the
at 25 °C by slowly adding 10 mL of aqueous solution Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS),
containing 0.55 g (2.5 mmol) of APS to the solution Campinas (Brazil) with a fixed wavelength of 1.608
containing the swollen BC membrane. The total Å under vacuum at room temperature. The scattering
polymerization time was 24 h. After this time, the intensity I(q) was plotted as a function of the wave
BC/Pani.DBSA membrane was washed with ethanol vector q = 4psinh/k, where h is the scattering angle.
and vacuum dried at room temperature, obtaining The scattering intensity was normalized by subtract-
films with 0.05 ± 0.02 mm thickness. The dried BC ing the background scattering and taking account the
film presented a thickness of 0.03 ± 0.01 mm. Pure sample thickness.
Pani.DBSA samples were also prepared using similar
procedure. In these cases, the samples were precipi-
tated from water to the resulting powder was vacuum Results and discussion
dried at room temperature. Table 1 summarizes the
experiment recipes. BC samples used in this work consisted of hydrated
sheets with thickness around 1 mm. After drying, the
Characterization thickness of the BC sheet decreased to as low as
0.03 mm. The in situ polymerization of aniline was
Attenuation reflectance Fourier transformed Infrared performed in the presence of the hydrated (swollen)
spectra (ATR-FTIR) were recorded in a Bruker BC sheet. The polymerization started at the surface of
Spectrometer in the range of 4,000 to 800 cm-1 with the BC sheet, as indicated by the formation of several
64 scans. green points. After a certain period, the sheet became
X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were completely dark green and presented a thickness
obtained using a Rigaku Ultima IV difractometer, around 0.05 mm after drying. These sheets were also
equipped with a Cu Ka radiation source (k = self-supporting but very brittle when compared to the
1.45 nm), operating at 40 kV and 100 mA. The pure and dry BC sheet. These results suggest that
scanning rate was 0.058 s-1 and the corresponding PAni.DBSA is formed at the surface of the BC
intensities were measured over a 2h interval from 10 to nanofibers, destroying the original interactions
708. The degree of crystallinity (vc) was estimated from between the BC fibers.

123
1288 Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294

Fig. 1 FTIR spectra of bacterial cellulose (A), PAniBC1 (B),

PAniBC2 (C), PaniBC3 (D) and pure PAni (E)

The impregnation of the BC nanofibers with

PAni.DBSA was confirmed by ATR-FTIR and
XRD. Figure 1 compares the ATR-FTIR spectra of
BC, PAni.DBSA and the BC/PAni.DBSA composites
prepared with different DBSA concentrations. The
spectrum of BC displays the main characteristic
bands at 3,345 cm-1 (due to stretching vibration of
OH groups), at 2,905 cm-1 (assigned to stretching
vibration of C–H bond in pyranoid ring) and at
1,050 cm-1 (attributed to the stretching vibration of
C–O bonds. (Grande et al. 2009) The spectrum of
PAni.DBSA presents typical peaks at around 1,585
and 1,485 cm-1 due to the stretching vibration of
quinoid and benzenoid structure, respectively. The Fig. 2 TGA curves of (a) PAni.DBSA, (b) their corresponding
BC/PAni.DBSA composites as a function of the DBSA
peak at 1,317 cm-1 is attributed to the stretching concentration and (c) pure BC
vibration of O=S=O groups and another one at
1,030 cm-1 is related to NH?SO3- interactions obtained with Pani-cellulose composites with those
(Babazadeh 2007). The spectra of the composites corresponding to the pure components, cellulose and
display the main characteristic absorptions of BC and PAni.DBSA prepared at the same conditions.
PAni.DBSA components. However, some particular- Figure 2 illustrates the TGA profiles of the samples
ities can be observed, such as: the absorption related prepared with different amount of DBSA. The main
to the OH group (peak a) presents a red shift, degradation parameters are also summarized in
suggesting some interactions between BC and PAni. Table 2. Both cellulose and polyaniline produce
Moreover, all composites display a new band at significant amount of residue. PAni.DBSA prepared
2,100 cm-1 (peak b), which is not present in the with higher amount of DBSA (PAni1) displayed
spectra of both components, indicating the formation lower amount of residue because of the presence of
of new chemical bonds, probably originated from DBSA in large extent.
grafting reactions of PAni.DBSA on the BC chains. To estimate the proportion of polyaniline in each
The amount of polyaniline in the composite was sample, it was assumed that both components in the
estimated from TGA, by comparing the residue composite (cellulose and PAni.DBSA) produce an

123
Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294 1289

Table 2 TGA parameters of BC, PAni.DBSA and their cor- peaks at 2h = 14.5° and 23°, which are assigned to
responding BC/PAni.DBSA composites as a function of the the (110) and (220) diffraction planes (Watanabe
DBSA concentration
et al. 1998). PAni.DBSA exhibits two main charac-
Code BC DBSA/Ani Onset Residue teristic reflections at 12.6° and 22°. These peaks are
(cm3) (molar ratio) degradation (%) broad and overlap with other reflection peaks sug-
temperature
( °C)
gesting the presence of disordered structures. The
XRD patterns of the composites also present the
Pure BC 30 – 294 14 characteristic peaks related to the both components
PAni1 – 4 240 39 but that one at 2h = 14.5° related to the cellulose
PAni2 – 1.5 239 69 component is shifted towards higher 2h values and
PAni3 – 1.0 239 66 decreases in intensity as the amount of DBSA in the
PAniBC1 30 4 223 27 sample decreases. Additionally, some other reflec-
PAniBC2 30 1.5 223 33 tions are present, indicating the presence of new
PAniBC3 30 1.0 223 33 crystal forms, probably due to the interactions
between the components. The crystallinity degree of
PAni.DBSA in the pure form is similar to that found
amount of residue proportional to the amount of each
for the composite prepared at the same conditions,
component. Therefore, a theoretical relationship for
that is, with similar amount of DBSA. However, this
each composite was built taking into account the
property was strongly influenced by the DBSA
amount of residue of the pure components and
content. As observed in Table 3, the crystallinity
simulating their proportion in the composite. Based
degree is higher in the PAni1 and PAniBC1, which
on this calculation, it was possible to estimate the
was prepared with higher amount of DBSA. This
proportion of PAni in PAniBC1, PAniBC2 and
behavior suggests that the bulky DBSA dopant and
PAniBC3 as around 50, 35 and 35%, respectively.
the free DBSA molecules with the alkyl side chains
Figure 3 compares the XRD patterns of BC,
cause some self organization to form layer-type
PAni.DBSA and their corresponding BC/PAni.DBSA
ordering. (Tsotcheva et al. 2001; Ray et al. 2009).
composites as a function of the DBSA concentration.
Bulk conductivity of PAni.DBSA and their BC-
The spectrum of BC displays two main reflection
based nanocomposites was determined by impedance
analysis, whose dielectric response is described by
the complex impedance or Nyquist plot as Eq. 1:
Z ¼ Z0  jZ00 ð1Þ
where Z0 and Z00 are the real and imaginary parts of
the complex impedance, respectively (Soares et al.
2006). The Nyquist plots of the complex impedance
for PAni.DBSA and BC/PAni.DBSA composites are

Table 3 Crystallinity degree of cellulose, Pani.DBSA and the

composites
Sample Crystallinity (%)

Cellulose 58 ± 1
PAniBC1 48 ± 4
PAniBC2 42 ± 2
PAniBC3 38 ± 2
PAni1 47 ± 4
PAni2 42 ± 2
Fig. 3 WAXS patterns of bacterial cellulose (a), PAniBC1 PAni3 39 ± 2
(b), PAniBC2 (c), PaniBC3 (d) and pure PAni (e)

123
1290
Fig. 4 Complex impedance plane (NyQuist plots) of Pani samples as a function of the DBSA concentration
illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. From these
plots, the resistance of the samples was determined
by the intersection of the low frequency end of the
semicircle arc with the real axis, since R = Z0 when
Z00 = 0 at low frequency. The conductivity (r) values
of the samples, presented in Table 4, were calculated
from the Eq. 2, where ‘ is thickness, and A is the area
of sample.
l
r¼ ð2Þ
RA
Pure PAni.DBSA samples presented Nyquist plots
with one semi circle, as expected for one phase
material. PAni1 prepared with higher DBSA concen-
tration showed higher bulk electrical conductivity
value than the PAni2 and PAni3. This rise of the
conductivity with the increase the DBSA concentra-
tion has been already related in the literature (Ohlan
et al. 2009), and is related to the increase of the
doping degree. Bacterial cellulose presented conduc-
tivity around 10-6 times smaller than pure polyan-
iline, as shown in Table 4.
The BC/PAni.DBSA composites presented
Nyquist plots with two semi-circles, indicating the
presence of two phases (Fig. 5). The first semi circle
(represented in the insert Figures) was attributed to
the pure polyaniline or regions with great amount of
polyaniline and the second semi-circle was attributed
to the composites. The conductivity values of the two
phases are different, as expected for the heteroge-
neous systems. In both phases, the highest conduc-
tivity values were observed for PAniBC2 composite,
synthesized with a DBSA/aniline molar ratio of 1.5.
Regarding the PAniBC3, the difference of the
conductivity values between the two phases is lower
123
Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294
than in the other systems, indicating a better homo-
geneity of this system.
The Nyquist plot can be related to an electrical
circuit constituted by a resistor connected to a
constant phase element (CPE). The impedance value
of a CPE is expressed by the following equation:
1
ZCPE ¼ ð3Þ
QðjxÞn
where Q is a frequency-independent constant, x is
the angular frequency and n values are the correlation
coefficients for the CPE. (Kobayashi et al. 1984;
Castagno et al. 2010) The CPE may be related to a
capacitor if n = 1, or a resistor if n = 0. When
n = 0.5, the charge transport may be associated with
a diffusion process. The CPE factor (n) is determined
by Eq. 4, where H is the angle of initial semi-circle
(Skale et al. 2007; Yuan et al. 2010).
H
n¼ ð4Þ
90
The CPE factor values of PAni1, PAni2 and PAni3
(Fig. 4) corresponded to 0.65, 0.67 and 0.69, respec-
tively, suggesting a diffusion process of the charge in
a heterogeneous or porous matrix. This information is
consistent with the polyaniline morphology. The CPE
factor determined for the PAniBC1, PAniBC2 and
PAniBC3 composites corresponded to 0.61, 0.44 and
0.47, respectively. These values also indicate a
diffusion process of the charge in a porous medium.
The lower values of the n exponent for the compos-
ites when compared to those found for pure
PAni.DBSA samples suggest a diffusion process
towards higher porous medium. In this sense,
PAniBC1, prepared with higher amount of DBSA
presented lower porosity.
Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294
Fig. 5 Complex impedance plane (NyQuist plots) of BC/
Pani.DBSA composites as a function of the DBSA
concentration
The modification of the BC structure by impreg-
nation of PAni.DBSA was confirmed by SEM
analysis. Figure 6 presents the FEG–SEM micro-
graphs of the surfaces of the composites, whose
1291
cross-sectional SEM micrographs are illustrated in
the corresponding inserted pictures. BC presents a
typical structure of cellulose produced by bacteria,
constituted by a 3-D network of nanofibers with
thickness of about 50 nm (Fig. 6a) (Gardner and
Blackwell 1975; Klemm et al. 2006a). This unique
nanostructure with large surface area, not found in
vascular plant cellulose, is responsible for its high
ability to absorb a great amount of water (up to 200
times of its dry mass) and its great elasticity, high wet
strength, and conformability (Czaja et al. 2006). Such
nanofibers are difficult to distinguish in the surface
morphology of the BC/PAni.DBSA composites,
especially those prepared with lower amounts of
DBSA (PAniBC2 and PAniBC3—Fig. 6c, d). These
surface morphologies also present different degrees
of roughness indicating that the PAni.DBSA are
formed at the surface of the BC sheets inducing some
compaction of the polymeric structure. The cross-
sectional micrographs give better information regard-
ing the distribution of the PAni.DBSA in the BC
sheet. PAniBC1 composite (Fig. 6b) shows a thin
layer of PAni.DBSA coated on the surface of the BC
sheet and very few amounts of PAni diffused into the
interior of the sheet. This composite presents the
highest amount of PAni.DBSA and the good con-
ductivity value of phase 1 (related to the PAni). This
morphology explains the lower bulk electrical con-
ductivity of this sample (conductivity value of Phase
2). It is believed that the high amounts of DBSA used
to prepare this sample interact with the BC nanofibers
located at the surface of the sheet and form a layer,
which hinder the penetration of the polyaniline grown
chain inside the BC sheet. Such self-organized layer
may be also responsible for the higher crystallinity
degree of this sample, discussed previously.
In the case of PAniBC2 (Fig. 6c) and PAniBC3
(Fig 6d), which were prepared with lower amounts of
DBSA, the PAni.DBSA chains were able to penetrate
inside the BC sheet, giving rise to more homogeneous
composites.
The arrangement of the PAni.DBSA in the differ-
ent BC-based nanocomposites was also evaluated by
small angle X-ray scattering experiments. Figure 7
illustrates the SAXS patterns of these composites as a
function of the amount of DBSA. The SAXS results
of PAniBC3 prepared with low amount of DBSA
suggest a nanostructure consisted of spatially corre-
lated PAni nano-domains in the cellulose, forming
123
1292 Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294

Table 4 A.C Bulk

Sample Conductivity (S/cm) CPE factor (n)
conductivity of bacterial
cellulose, PAniBC1, a b
Phase 1 Phase 2
PAniBC2, PAniBC3 and
polyanilines PAni1 2.09 9 10-2 *** 0.65
PAni2 1.93 9 10-3 *** 0.67
PAni3 4.04 9 10-5 *** 0.69
PAniBC1 1.61 9 10-4 7.78 9 10-6 0.61
a
Phase 1 refers to pure PAniBC2 1.88 9 10-4 8.13 9 10-5 0.44
PAni; b Phase 2 refers to PAniBC3 5.78 9 10 -6
6.72 9 10-7 0.47
composite; c Conductive of
Cellulosec 6.50 9 10-8 0.55
pure cellulose

larger secondary aggregates which present a rough
surface (slope of the Porod0 s region of the aggregates
around 3.7). By increasing the DBSA content (PA-
niBC2) the shoulder observed at high q-values due to
spatial correlation between domains is more pro-
nounced. This feature occurs probably because the
more efficient polymerization and crystallization of
PAni promoted by DBSA causes shrinkage of the
cellulose chains located around and between the PAni
primary domains. This interpretation is consistent
with both the existence of local chemical interaction
between PAni and cellulose and with the observed
increase of conductivity for this sample (Table 4). In
the spectrum of the composite containing the highest
DBSA content (PAniBC1) the spatial correlation
between PAni domains disappears and the slope at
low q-values decreases up to around 3, indicating an
increase of the roughness degree of the surface,
which is in agreement with the PAni.DBSA prefer-
entially located at the surface of the BC sheets.

Fig. 6 SEM micrographs of bacterial cellulose (a), PAniBC1 (b), PAniBC2 (c) and PAniBC3 (d)

123
Cellulose (2011) 18:1285–1294
Fig. 7 SAXS patterns of PAniBC1(a), PAniBC2(b) and PaniBC3(c)
Conclusions
Conducting composites were successfully prepared
by the in situ polymerization of aniline in the
presence of hydrated bacterial cellulose. The crystal-
linity degree of the pure PAni.DBSA and the
corresponding BC—based nanocomposites increased
with the DBSA concentration. The optimum DBSA/
aniline molar ratio to produce BC/PAni.DBSA with
higher bulk conductivity corresponded to 1.5. Higher
amount of DBSA resulted in a DBSA layer at the BC
sheet surface, which avoid the penetration of the
polyaniline chains inside the bulk material. This
behavior resulted in a decrease of the bulk electrical
conductivity. From SAXS experiments, one can
suggest the formation of surface with different
degrees of roughness, which is confirmed by SEM
micrographs. This preliminary study is very promis-
ing, in the sense that these new BC—based nano-
composites may be found important applications as
optical and electrical displays. Additional experi-
ments involving different reaction conditions are in
progress aiming to achieve a better combination of
electrical conductivity and mechanical properties,
and will be published sooner.
Acknowledgments The authors thank CNPq, FINEP and
FAPERJ for the financial support and scholarships. The authors
also acknowledge the Brazilian Synchrotron Laboratory
(LNLS) for the support on SAXS experiments.
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