High dielectric constant polyaniline/poly(acrylic acid) composites prepared by in situ polymerization

An ultra-high dielectric constant composite of polyaniline, PANI–DBSA/PAA, was synthesized using in situ polymerization of aniline in an aqueous dispersion of poly-acrylic acid (PAA) in the presence of dodecylbenzene sulfonate (DBSA). The water-soluble PAA served as a polymeric stabilizer, protecting the PANI particles from macroscopic aggregation. A very high dielectric constant of ca. 2.0 × 105 (at 1 kHz) was obtained for the composite containing 30% PANI by weight. The influence of the PANI content on the morphological, dielectric and electrical properties of the composites was investigated. The frequency dependence of dielectric permittivity, dielectric loss, loss tangent and electric modulus were analyzed in the frequency range from 0.5 kHz to 10 MHz. SEM micrograph revealed that composites with high PANI content (i.e., 20 wt%) consisted of numerous nano-scale PANI particles that were evenly distributed within the PAA matrix. The high dielectric constants of these composites were attributed to the sum of the small capacitors of the PANI particles.