Polyaniline synthesized with functionalized sulfonic acids for blends manufacture

Polyaniline (PAni), an electronic conductive polymer, has poor mechanical properties, such as low tensile, compressive and flexural strength that render PAni a non-ideal material to be processed for practical applications. Desired properties of polyaniline can be enhanced by mixing it with a polymer that has good mechanical properties. In this work, PAni was synthesised using functionalized sulfonic acids like camphorsulfonic acid (CSA) and dodecilbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) in order to promote PAni doping and improve its solubility, making possible conductive blends manufacture. The different forms of PAni were characterized by infra-red spectroscopy, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy and conductivity measurements. A conductive blend composed of PAni/DBSA and lower density polyethylene (LDPE) was obtained via solubilization method and its thermal, morphological and electrical properties were investigated. Concentrations as low as 5 wt. (%) of PAni was able to lead to electrical conductivities of PAni/LDPE blends in the range of 10-3 S.cm-1, showing great potential to be used in antistatic packing, electromagnetic shielding, anti-corrosion shielding or as a semiconductor.