Conducting Polymers on Paper Fibres

Abstract

Conducting polymers have generated a great deal of interest because of their physical and chemical properties as well as their potential in industrially useful materials. However, one of the shortcomings of most conducting polymers is that they are often formed as intractable films that are difficult to process [1]. To overcome this problem we have incorporated various conducting polymers into sheets of paper in order to create new composite materials which combine the universal properties of a paper sheet or paper products with the chemical and electrically conducting properties of the conducting polymer. Various composite paper – conducting polymer products have been prepared by polymerizing polypyrrole and polyaniline directly onto the paper sheet using ferric chloride as the oxidant. Electronmicroscopy shows that the polymers comprise spheres of about 50–150 nanometers in size fused together such that they fully encapsulate the individual cellulose fibres in the paper sheet. The open matrix of fibres characteristic of the original paper sheet is maintained and hence provides a much greater specific surface area for the conducting polymer than that of a continuous flat sheet which would be the case if the polymer simply formed a laminar coating on the paper surface. In the case of polyaniline, it was also possible to form a different morphology of the polymer comprising a mix of nano-size spheres, rods and plates using ammonium persulfate as the oxidant. Conductivities of up to 6 S cm −1 have been measured for paper-polypyrrole composites and up to 2x10 −3 S cm −1 for paper-polyaniline composites.