Strategic Synthesis of 2D-, 3D-Conducting Polymers and derived Nanocomposites.

In recent decades, there has been a great deal of interest in conducting polymers due to their broad applications. At the same time, various synthetic techniques have been developed to produce various nanostructures of the conducting polymers with their fascinating properties. However, the techniques for the manufacture of 2D nanosheets are either complex or expensive. No comprehensive approach for constructing two-dimensional and three-dimensional materials or their composites has been documented. Herein, a simple and scalable synthetic protocol is reported for the design of two-dimensional (2D-), three-dimensional (3D-), and related conducting polymer nanocomposites by interface manipulation in a bicontinuous microemulsion system. In this method, diverse bicontinuous thin layers of oil and water are employed to produce two-dimensional nanosheets of conducting polymers. For the fabrication of 3D-PPY and their composites, special designed linkers of the monomers were applied to lock 3D-networks of conducting polymers and their composites. The technique can be extended to fabrication of most conducting polymer composites, being cost-effective and easily scalable. Optimum electrical conductivity obtained for 2D-PPY nanosheets were 219 Scm -1 , the highest literature value reported to date to the best of our knowledge. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.