Polyaniline with ω-hydroxyalkoxy pendant substituent on the meta-position

Abstract

A series of meta-substituted polyaniline derivatives, poly[3-(ω-hydroxyhexoxy)aniline], poly[3-(ω-hydroxyoctoxy)aniline], poly[3-(ω-hydroxydecoxy)aniline] and poly[3-(ω-hydroxydodecoxy)aniline] have been synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization. The resulting polymers show enhanced solubility in organic solvent. The polymerization yield is increased and the reaction is accelerated by the addition of aniline. The homopolymers can attain conductivity in the range of 10-6 to 10-4S cm-1 after protonic doping with HCl. Upon doping oxidatively with iodine, the conductivity is ca. 10-5 to 10-3S cm-1. For the copolymers with aniline (15mol%), the corresponding conductivity is higher, 10-5 to 10-3S cm-1 upon HCl doping and 10-4 to 10-2S cm-1 upon iodine doping. Thermogravimetry (TG) of the polymer depicts two major weight loss steps corresponding to the degradation of side chain and the thermal breakdown of the backbone, respectively. The polymers are largely amorphous but show an increase in crystallinity with increasing pendant chain length. The polymers were also subjected to FT-IR, UV-VIS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.