Synthesis of Poly(N-ethylaniline) Nanoparticles Synthesis and Characterization of Organically Soluble Conducting Poly(N-ethylaniline) Nanoparticles using Acrylic Acid as a Soft Template

Abstract

In this paper, we report the synthesis of poly(N-ethylaniline) (PNETA) by using tartaric acid (TA) as an organic acid dopant by aqueous polymerization method of N-ethylaniline using ammonium per sulphate (APS) as an oxidant and acrylic acid (AA) as a soft template. This is a new polymerization method for the direct synthesis of the emeraldine salt form of poly(N-ethylaniline) in bulk quantity, which is soluble in organic solvents such as m-cresol and N-methyl pyrrolidinone. The prepared polymers were characterized by UV, FTIR, XRD, TGA, SEM and conductivity measurement studies. The results are discussed with reference to HCl doped poly(N-ethylaniline). It is observed that PNETA/TA/AA polymer is comparatively more soluble in m-cresol than that doped with HCl in its salt form. The formation of emeraldine salt phase and dopping process was confirmed by FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscropy. We demonstrate the effect of organic dopant on the morphology and conductivity of the PNETA. It was found that, PNETA doped with TA synthesized using acrylic acid (AA) as a soft template display higher doping level, crystallinity and solubility in common organic solvent. On the contrary, HCl doped polymer was lowered at doping level and amorphous in nature which reflects the role of organic dopant and soft template. X-ray diffraction studies indicate that the PNETA/TA/AA doped samples exhibit higher crystallinity, which indicates enhanced polymer sub-chain alignment as compared to HCl doped polymer. This is also manifested by the FTIR studies. SEM result also revealed the continuous morphology and sub-micrometer size, evenly distributed particles of the PNETA/TA/AA doped polymer.