Nanosized polypyrrole affected by surfactant agitation for emulsion polymerization

Nanosized conductive polypyrrole (PPy) powders were prepared using emulsion polymerization with aid of high speed agitation. Different agitation speeds from 650 to 24,000 rpm were used with different anionic, cationic, and non-ionic surfactants. Then, the effects of the agitation speed and surfactant species were examined in terms of their physical and electrical properties of conductivity and powder size. Prepared PPy nanopowders exhibited high conductivity values of 10 S/cm regions, when sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) and sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) were used. The powder dispersion of the resultant PPy was also observed to be dependent on the agitation speed and surfactant type. The morphology shown by SEM and TEM revealed that the anionic SDBS surfactant could effectively disperse into nanosized aggregates of the PPy. The results showed that the combination of the anionic surfactants and high agitation in the emulsion polymerization could produce nanosized PPy powders with higher conductivity.