Effect of Dopant Type on the Properties of Polyaniline

The comparative Study on the effect of different type of dopants on the properties of polyaniline (PANI) is relative less although dopant has profound effect of the properties of PANI. So, the aim of the present work is to study the effect of different type of dopant, namely strong inorganic hydrochloric acid (HCl), organic and aromatic acids containing different aromatic substitution, namely p-toluene sulfonic acid (PTSA), doclecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA), organic and aliphatic acids having long hydrocarbon chain, namely lauric acid (LA), on the properties of PANI. The PANI was prepared through oxidative polymerization methods and doped with HCl, PTSA, DBSA, and LA and then characterized through different methods like conductivity measurement, UV, X-ray, DSC, TGA, and SEM. It was found that the properties of doped PANI depend on the type and molecular size of the dopant. With the increase in dopant chain length, the crystallinity is decreased, whereas the d-spacing, interchain separation, and solubility are increased. The bond formation of water molecules with the backbone nitrogen of the polymers is much less in presence of aromatic dopants when compared with those of inorganic or aliphatic dopants. All the doped polyanilines under investigation do not decompose up to 500 degrees C. (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 112: 3135-3140, 2009