Conductivity study of poly(acrylonitrile-co-2-vinylpyridine) complexed with vinyl acetic acid and 4-pentenoic acid

Abstract

The synthesis, characterization, and ionic conductivities of poly(acrylonitrile-co-2-vinylpyridine) and its salts with vinyl acetic acid and 4-pentenoic acid are reported here. The copolymer and the salts are characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and gel permeation chromatographic (GPC) techniques. The ac conductivities are measured by varying frequency ranging from 42 Hz to 5 MHz and temperature from 30 to 90 °C in solid state. The ionic conductivities of the polyelectrolytes of vinyl acetic acid and 4-pentenoic acid are found to be 4.23 × 10−6 and 1.05 × 10−6 S cm−1, respectively, which are higher than that of the poly(acrylonitrile-co-2-vinylpyridine) (3.14 × 10−9 S cm−1) at 90 °C. The ionic transport number of vinyl acetic acid and 4-pentenoic acid salts are 0.84 and 0.81, respectively, which are relatively higher than that of the copolymer (0.72). The activation energies for the copolymer and the polyelectrolytes are found to be 0.1723, 0.7192, and 0.6694 eV, respectively. It is also observed that only 20–40 % water was up taken when the copolymer and the polyelectrolytes are immersed in water for 24 h.