Benzoyl-Peroxide-Initiated Inverse Emulsion Copolymerization of Aniline ando-Toluidine: Effect of Dodecylbenzenesulfonic Acid on the Physicochemical Properties of the Copolymers

Abstract

Homo- and copolymers of aniline and o-toluidine have been synthesized using an inverse emulsion pathway; the copolymerization was initiated by benzoyl peroxide. The resulting homo- and copolymers are soluble in common organic solvents such as chloroform. Fairly higher doping percentages and polymerization yields for POT suggests that DBSA (a bulky molecule) can efficiently dope the polymer backbone by overcoming the steric hindrances created by the methyl substituent. However, in contrast to the PATs reported so far, solubility of POT as well as copolymers is lower than that of PANI. The homo- and copolymers have been characterized with UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopy, CV, in situ conductivity measurements and SEM. When dissolved in a 2:1 mixture of toluene and 2-propanol, POT, unlike PANI and the copolymers, does not undergo any conformational rearrangement. A copolymer containing equimolar feed fractions of the comonomers has been obtained in higher yield and its morphology is similar to that of polyaniline.