Advances in blends preparation based on electrically conducting polymer

Abstract

This work presents an extensively detailed study on preparation and performance of four different hydrochloric acid–doped polyaniline (PANI) blends. The blends are obtained by changing four different polymers, viz. polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and sodium alginate (SA) keeping PANI concentration constant. Finally, the blend films deposited on substrates are used to characterize the surface, structural morphology, chemical interaction (SEM and FTIR), thermal properties (TGA and DSC), and mechanical properties by tensile testing. The morphological analysis shows uniform chemical blending of PANI with all three insulating matrices except in PVC matrix. FTIR and TGA results also suffice the fact that PANI particle has a chemical interaction with polymer backbones. Electrical conductivity study of PANI blend reveals that PANI-PVA forms the highest conducting blend with the conductivity of order of 10−2 S/cm and PANI-PVC has the lowest at 10−13S/cm.