Nanofiber Seeding is the process to control the bulk morphology of chemically synthesized electronic organic polymers.
A new synthetic approach, called nanofiber seeding,[1] was developed to control the bulk morphology of chemically synthesized electronic organic polymers. Bulk quantities of nanofibers of conducting polymers such as polyaniline, can be synthesized in one step without the need for any template.
Conventional synthesis yields polyaniline having granular morphology. However, if the conventional reaction is seeded by 2-4 mg (seed quantities) of added nanofibers, the bulk morphology changes dramatically from granular to nano-fibrillar. When the reaction is seeded by vanadium pentoxide nanofibers, this method can be extended to all major classes of conducting polymers, including polypyrrole, PEDOT and polythiophene etc.[2][3]