The Mechanical Properties of Polypyrrole Plates

Abstract

The electrically conductive polymers such as polyacetylene and polypyrrole have received a great deal of attention in recent years (1). Although polyacetylene, with its greater degree of crystallinity and simple, even prototypical, chemical structure, may be regarded as a more tractable problem in polymer physics, it is now widely recognized that polypyrrole, in the conducting state, is by far the more stable material under ambient conditions. As a result, the prospects for commercial exploitation seem better for polypyrrole, at present, than for polyacetylene. In spite of this, little attention has been paid towards the material properties of this polymer. An early report indicated high tensile strengths in very thin films, but only erroneous values of the Young’s moduli were given (2).