Investigation of dedoping-redoping properties of novel poly(vinyl chloride)/ polyisoprene/ polypyrrole ternary composites

In this study, novel ternary composites of polypyrrole (PPy), poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and poly(cis-1,4 isoprene) (PI) were prepared by in-situ polymerization of PPy at different mass percent ratios represented as 60PVC/30PI/10PPy, 40PVC/30PI/30PPy, 20PVC/30PI/50PPy, and 10PVC/20PI/70PPy. In these novel ternary composites, PVC, PI and PPy provide mechanical strength, flexibility, and electrical conductivity, respectively. Fundamental characterizations such as FTIR, XRD, SEM and TGA were employed to examine the structural, morphological and thermal properties of the ternary composites. Gouy balance measurements identified the conductivity mechanisms of PPy and the ternary composites as polaron. The highest electrical conductivity among the ternary composites was detected to be 1.84 × 10−4 S cm−1 for 10PVC/20PI/70PPy composite. Additionally, rising temperature leads to increase in the conductivies of the all composites. Dedoping-redoping studies were also conducted in both acidic and basic environments at different concentrations of HCl and NH3 for varying durations to obtain controllable conductivities for the possible further applications. All ternary composite systems in this study have showed controlled electrical conductivity. The greatest difference in the conductivity via dedoping-redoping process under the optimized conditions has been obtained for 40PVC/30PI/30PPy ternary composite.