Large-scale Synthesis of Size and Thickness Tunable Conducting Polymer Nanosheets

Conducting polymer nanosheets are promising for many intriguing applications owing to their unique optical and electrical properties. However, it is still challenging to fabricate size- and thickness-tunable conducting polymer nanosheets with the feature of large scalability in a facile manner. Here, we developed a new approach for the massive synthesis of various conducting polymer nanosheets (polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PANi), polyethylene dioxythiophene (PEDOT)) at a gas–solid interface between the monomeric gas and CuCl2·2H2O salt. The thickness of the as-obtained polymer nanosheets can be tuned from ∼2.1 to ∼8.8 nm. Furthermore, a highly conductive, flexible and large-area (∼60 cm2) PPy film with a transparency of ∼85% was prepared on the surface of the CuCl2·2H2O film. The PPy nanosheet-assembled free-standing electrode exhibited a high volumetric capacitance of ∼320 F cm−3 and great rate capability. This facile and cost-effective method could massively produce conducting polymer nanosheets, and is promising for potential practical applications.