Self-assembly of aniline oligomers and their induced polyaniline supra-molecular structures

Aniline chemical oxidative polymerisation (COP), which produces various polyaniline (PANI) and oligoaniline supra-molecular structures, can be regarded as an in situ self-assembly process. This review provides a brief introduction to recent work on the structural characters and self-assembly behaviours of oligomeric aniline chemical oxidation products; it is focused on the relationships between the oligomeric species and morphology of the final products such as PANI nanoparticles, nanofibres/rods, nanotubes or oligoaniline nanosheets, micro/nanospheres in aniline COP systems. Several mechanisms proposed as explanations for the formation of typical supra-molecular structures are discussed in order to illustrate the roles of aniline oligomers. This article concludes with our perspectives on future work remaining to be done to uncover the formation mechanism of supra-molecular structures constructed by aniline chemical oxidation products and their controllable synthesis.