Co-presence of aniline monomer and SSA leads to the formation of a dopant–aniline charge transfer complex, which
assembles to form thermodynamically stable aggregate micelles.
These micelles further act as a template for the growth of polymer
with morphology of nanometer dimensions. The micelle oriented
nucleation and growth of polymer particles in the presence of SSA
dopant results into the formation of nanoparticles in comparison
to the bulk PAni. The synthesized nanoproduct is advantageous in
two major ways. The SSA-PAni can be easily modified with APTES
to generate NH2 functionality. These NH2 groups can be utilized
for conjugating the SSA-PAni nanostructure with biomolecules, e.g.
antibodies. Secondly, in comparison to the measured BET surface
area of the bulk PAni (17.9 m2
/g), the nanostructured SSA-PAni
exhibits larger BET surface area (89.2 m2
/g). The larger surface area
of the SSA doped functional nano PAni is directly helpful in its more
effective conjugation with antibodies which finally leads to the
attainment of better sensor performance.