Synthesis of conductive macroporous composite polymeric materials using porogen-free method

Abstract

We report the synthesis of stable conductive macroporous materials by chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline-(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid) in the presence of polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs). The presented method allows, without using any pore generating agent, to prepare conductive highly porous materials with tunable properties. In particular, by changing the composition, i.e. ratio between poly(aniline-(2-acrylamido-2- methylpropanesulfonic acid)) (PANI-PAAMPSA) and PS-NPs, we were able to modulate structure moieties of PANI-PAAMPSA on the surface of PS-NPs as well as the size and internal structure of the formed microclusters. The materials exhibited high porosities up to 80% and surface areas up to 18m2/g depending on the ratio between PS and PANI-PAAMPSA. In addition, by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), it was observed that the PANI-PAAMPSA coating serves as a thermal barrier for PS-NPs. Such a high thermal stability of the prepared microclusters, up to 350°C, was confirmed by the thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Despite the presence of non-conductive PS-NPs, the synthesized composite materials exhibited specific conductivities in the order of 10−3Scm−1, comparable to aniline-based conductive polymers studied in the literature.