Preparation and characterization of electrically conductive polypropylene/polypyrrole composites

Abstract

Polypropylene particles 35 μm in diameter were chemically coated with polypyrrole. The content of polypyrrole varied from 1.1 to 10.4 wt%. Polypropylene/polypyrrole (PP/PPy) composite films about 0.2 mm thick were prepared by compression moulding of modified powders. The electrical conductivity of compression moulded samples depends on the concentration of polypyrrole, and reached values from 4 × 10 −10 to 5 × 10 −3 S cm −1, which is about seven orders of magnitude higher than the conductivity in the blends prepared by mechanical mixing of PP and PPy in the same PPy concentration range. The PP/PPy composites were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). SEM pictures showed significant different in coverage of the surface of the PP particles, while the concentration change was within the range from 1.1 wt% to 8.9 wt% PPy.