Synthesis and characterization of electrically conductive poly(aniline-co-3-bromoaniline) nanocomposites

Abstract

Poly(aniline-co-3-bromoaniline) copolymers with varying compositions of the monomers have been prepared in this work by copolymerization of aniline and 3-bromoaniline using ammonium persulphate as oxidant. Structure and morphology of the copolymers have been characterized by XRD, 1H-NMR, UV-Vis, SEM and TEM. Though polyaniline consists of aggregates of nanoparticles, poly(3-bromoaniline) shows plate-like morphology. The copolymers were found to exhibit mixed morphology depending on the composition. Electrical properties such as AC conductivity and dielectric permittivity of the different polymers have been investigated. Conductivity studies reveal that the AC conductivity of the polymers depend on their composition. The poly(3-bromoaniline) shows a conductivity of the order of 10?8 S/cm which is much lesser than polyaniline. However, copolymerization of polyaniline with 10% 3-bromoaniline resulted in a few-fold increase of the conductivity compared to pure polyaniline. , Springer Science+Business Media New York.