Synthesis and characterization of novel conducting composites of polyaniline prepared in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfonate and several water soluble polymers

Various conductive composites were prepared by in situ chemical polymerization of aniline in the presence of several water soluble polymers [alginic acid (2a, AA), poly(acrylic acid) (2b, PAA), and poly(vinyl alchol) (2c, PVA)] and/or anionic surfactants [dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (1a, DBSA) and sodium dodecylsulfate (1b, SDS)] under various polymerization conditions. As a result, the corresponding composites having good film forming property were readily obtained even in the cases with SDS, although PANI prepared in the presence of SDS (PANI/SDS) generally shows extremely poor film forming property due to its low solubility/miscibility and processability in the similar manner as PANI doped with HCl (PANI/HCl). Among the resulting composites, the conductivities of the composites synthesized with SDS tended to be higher than those of the similar composites prepared with DBSA or without anionic surfactants. In particular, the composite prepared by using PVA bearing high molecule weight (PVA-H) and 20 mmol of SDS to aniline monomer was found to show the highest conductivity among the present investigations (32 S/cm), although the conductivity of typical conductive polyaniline doped with HCl, which was synthesized under the similar polymerization conditions, was ca. 3 S/cm at the best. The present PANI composites were characterized by spectroscopic and thermal analysis. Formation of oxidation states of PANIs in these composites was confirmed by the spectroscopic (UV–vis and FT-IR) analysis. The thermal stability of the resulting composite was somewhat lower than those of PANI/SDS itself and PANI/HCl.