Polypyrrole-coated styrene-butyl acrylate copolymer composite particles with tunable conductivity

Abstract

A series of near or monodisperse styrene-butyl acrylate (SBA) copolymer latex particles with different butyl acrylate contents were coated with polypyrrole. The structure of the SBA/PPy composites was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFT), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and standard four-probe method. The core-shell morphology of the SBA/PPy composite particles was confirmed. The result of DSC showed that Tg of the composite is mainly determined by the core component. The effects of the concentration of polypyrrole, the butyl acrylate content in SBA copolymer and the nature of the counter-anion on the electrical conductivity of compression-moulded samples were studied. It was first found that the electrical conductivity of the samples can be tuned by varying the butyl acrylate content in SBA copolymer and the highest conductivity of the core-shell composite was 0.17 S · cm−1.