Fabrication and characterization of gum ghatti-polymethacrylic acid based electrically conductive hydrogels

Abstract

Gum ghatti-polymethacrylic acid-polyaniline based electrically conductive hydrogel with an interpenetrated network (IPN) structure was prepared through a two step aqueous polymerization. In the first step, cross linked network of polymethacrylic acid onto Gum ghatti was prepared using N,N′-methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBA) and ammonium persulfate (APS) as a cross linker-initiator system under microwave irradiation. Optimum reaction conditions affording maximum percentage swelling were: solvent (ml)=10, MAA (molL−1)=0.236×10−3, APS (molL−1)=0.175×10−1, MBA (molL−1)=0.32×10−1, reaction time (s)=85, microwave power (%)=100 and pH 7.0. The semi-interpenetrating networks was converted into a IPN through the impregnation of poly(aniline) chains and resulting IPN was doped with HCl. The maximum conductivity (2.69×10−4Scm−1) was observed with 2.0N HCl and 0.658×10−3molL−1 of aniline. Synthesized IPN was characterized using different techniques like FTIR, SEM and XRD. The candidate polymer was also subjected for evaluation of its thermal behavior using TGA.