Preparation of conductive nanocomposites based on poly (aniline-co- butyl 3-aminobenzoate) and poly (aniline-co-ethyl 3-aminobenzoate) by solution blending method

Abstract

The polyaniline (PANI) is a widely studied conducting polymer due to its application in several devices such as biosensor, gas sensor etc. Known methods to produce PANI composites may be essentially reduced to two distinct groups: synthetic methods based on aniline polymerization in the presence of or inside a matrix polymer, and blending methods to mix a previously prepared PANI with a matrix polymer. Poly (aniline-co-butyl 3-aminobenzoate) (ANI-co-BAB) and poly (aniline-co-ethyl 3-aminobenzoate) (ANI-co-EAB) are prepared as conducting copolymers in nanoscale by chemical oxidation method under ultrasonic irradiation. The different molar ratio of aniline to butyl 3-aminobenzoate and ethyl 3-aminobenzoate are used in the preparation of copolymers. Conductive nanocomposites based on ANI-co-BAB or ANI-co-EAB with poly (styrene-alt-maleic acid) (PSMAC), and polystyrene are prepared by solution blending method. The obtained conductive composites formed films with good homogeneity and flexibility. The conductivity of the obtained nanocomposites is measured with a four-probe method. The electrical conductivity of the composites (ANI-co-EAB)/PSMAC/PS and (ANI-co-BAB)/PSMAC/PS are 24 × 10−5 S cm−1 and 31 × 10−5 S cm, respectively. Our results show that the (ANI-co-BAB)/PSMAC/PS composite has more conductivity than (ANI-co-EAB)/PSMAC/PS composite. The copolymers and composites in nanoscale are characterized by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectral data. The surface morphology was studied using SEM analysis. Also, their grain size is measured using XRD studies.