Melt processible conducting polyaniline blend: mechanical and electrical properties

The effect of melt mixing process of conducting polymer, polyaniline with polystyrene was investigated. Polyaniline-dodecylbenzensulfonic acid (PANI-DBSA) complex was obtained by a one step emulsion polymerization for conducting blends. Polyaniline/Polystyrene conducting blends were prepared and mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elongation at break, modulus and electrical properties such as surface resistance, electrical conductivity, volume resistance and dielectric loss tangent were measured. It was found that the conductivity of polyaniline masterbatch is 6.99 S/cm and the percolation threshold of polyaniline blend was relatively low about 5 phr of polyaniline. The morphology of blends was setting closer to that of polyaniline and the dielectric loss increased up to 10⁵ at 50% of polyaniline and was more dependent on temperature than frequency at higher polyaniline concentration.