Electrically Conducting Compatible Blends of Polyaniline / Poly(Vinyl Pyrrolidone)

Abstract

Blending polyaniline (PAn) with a host polymer has the advantage of reducing the amount of polyaniline necessary for conductivity, increasing the stability of this conduction, and enhancing the overall mechanical integrity, versatility, and processability of PAn. PAn blends have generally been observed to be immiscible, reducing many of the above mentioned advantages. In this work, PAn was solution blended with poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) in either NMP or DMAc, both polar solvents with an amide linkage. We have found PAn to be miscible with PVP under certain processing conditions. The extent of this compatibility and resulting mechanical properties were assessed by DMA, DSC, TGA, SAXS, and light microscopy. DSC thermograms exhibit a single T_g for all blends ranging from 3 to 30 % by weight PAn. Light microscopy and SAXS also suggest no phase separation. TGA results show that NMP binds very tightly to both PAn and PVP, with solvent cast blends retaining up to 20 wt% NMP, even after relatively vigorous drying. Electrical conductivity measurements of cast films show conductivity to range from 10⁻³ to 2 S/cm over the same composition range.