The present invention is related to the functionalized polyanilines and also to a method for making said functionalized polyanilines. More particularly, a preferred embodiment of the method of the present invention comprises the steps of:

• (a) providing polyaniline in a solid state form;
• (b) subjecting the solid state polyaniline to a redox treatment to convert the backbone of the solid state polyaniline into a desirable oxidation state;
• (c) subjecting the resultant polyaniline to a reaction treatment with a solution of reactive chemical reagent(s) in a selected solvent or solvent mixture for a period of time, where the solvent or solvent mixture is capable of dissolving or dispersing the chemical reagent(s), and swelling or wetting the solid state polyaniline, where the chemical reagent(s) is capable of functionalizing the solid state polyaniline and transforming the backbone of the solid state polyaniline into a more reduced form; and
• (d) repeating steps (b) and/or (c);

wherein steps (b) and (c) can be reversed, or step (b) or step (c) can be omitted as desired in the first cycle or any subsequent repeat cycles of the redox/reaction treatments.