Designing Polyaniline (PANI) and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Based Electrically Conductive Nanocomposites: Preparation, Characterization and Blood Compatible Study

Novel electrically conducting and biocompatible composite hydrogel materials comprising of poly (aniline) (PANI) nanoparticles dispersed in a poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) - g-poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) matrix were prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline. The prepared ionic hydrogels were evaluated for their water uptake capacity in distilled water. While structural insights into the synthesized polymer was sought by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques, morphology and dimension of PANI particles embedded into the colored optically semi-transparent polymer films were evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis and Transmittance Electron Microscopy (TEM) while thermal behavior of composite hydrogel was investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Electrical conductivity of composite hydrogels containing different PANI percentage was determined by LCR. Considering the potential of electrically conductive nanocomposites materials in biomedical applications the in vitro blood compatibility of nanocomposites was investigated by employing several in vitro tests.