Chapter 13 - Experimental procedures for assessing electrical and thermal conductivity of polyaniline

Abstract

Conjugated polymers such as polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) nanotubes are favorable materials for various applications from electronics to medicine, because of their wide range of conductivity, reasonable cost, processability, and effortlessness of their synthesis. Conducting polymers such as doped polyacetylene, polythiophene, and PANI have been subjects of active research for manyyears. PANI and its composites revealed suitable electrical properties as well as synthesis simplicity to be distinguished among the conducting family of polymers, so that their low percolation threshold in miscible blends was particularly noticeable. By manipulating polymerization parameters such as temperature, oxidant content, the media, and polymerization route it is possible to obtain conducting polymers having a wide range of properties. The 3-omega method has become a readily accepted technique to directly measure the thermal conductivity of thin films of conducting polymers. The morphology, concentration, and mixing mode of PANI composites were also found to have an impact on the conductivity. In this chapter, methods applied in measuring the thermal and electrical conductivity of PANI are comprehensively reviewed.