29.06.2013 Views

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

system can be increased from 10 -15 S cm -1 (pure PE) to 10 -5 S cm -1 at 5% PANI and up to 10 -3 S<br />

cm -1 for 10% PANI. These are the highest conductivity values ever reported for these PANI<br />

concentrations in melt processed systems.<br />

In the second part of the study, a novel 3D porous polymeric conducting <strong>de</strong>vice is <strong>de</strong>rived from<br />

multi-percolated polymer blend systems. The work has focused on the preparation of ultra-low<br />

surface area porous substrates followed by the <strong>de</strong>position of polyanilene conductive polymer<br />

(PANI) on the internal porous surface using a layer-by-layer self-assembly technique. The<br />

approach reported here allows for the percolation threshold concentration of polyaniline<br />

conductive polymer (PANI) to be reduced to values as low as 0.19%. Furthermore, <strong>de</strong>pending on<br />

the amount of PANI <strong>de</strong>posited, the conductivity of the porous substrate can be controlled from<br />

10 -15 S cm -1 to 10 -3 S cm -1 . Ternary and quaternary multi-percolated systems comprised of high-<br />

<strong>de</strong>nsity polyethylene(HDPE), polystyrene(PS), poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA) and<br />

poly(vinyli<strong>de</strong>ne fluori<strong>de</strong>)(PVDF) are prepared by melt mixing and subsequently annealed in<br />

or<strong>de</strong>r to obtain large interconnected phases. Selective extraction of PS, PMMA and PVDF result<br />

in a fully interconnected porous HDPE substrate of ultra low surface area and highly uniform<br />

sized channels. This provi<strong>de</strong>s an i<strong>de</strong>al substrate for subsequent polyaniline(PANI) addition.<br />

Using a layer-by-layer(LbL) approach, alternating poly(styrene sulfonate)(PSS)/PANI layers are<br />

<strong>de</strong>posited on the internal surface of the 3-dimensional porous polymer substrate. The PANI and<br />

sodium poly(styrene sulfonate)(NaPSS) both adopt an inter-diffused network conformation on<br />

the surface. The sequential <strong>de</strong>position of PSS and PANI has been studied in <strong>de</strong>tail and the mass<br />

<strong>de</strong>position profile <strong>de</strong>monstrates oscillatory behavior following a zigzag-type pattern. The<br />

presence of salt in the <strong>de</strong>position solution results in a more uniform <strong>de</strong>position and more thickly<br />

<strong>de</strong>posited PSS/PANI layers. The conductivity of these samples was measured and the<br />

conductivity can be controlled from 10 -15 S cm -1 to 10 -5 S cm -1 <strong>de</strong>pending on the number of<br />

<strong>de</strong>posited layers. Applying a load to the substrate can be used as an additional control parameter.<br />

Higher loads result in higher conductivity values with values as high as 10 -3 S cm -1 obtained. The<br />

work <strong>de</strong>scribed above has focused on very low surface area porous substrates in or<strong>de</strong>r to<br />

<strong>de</strong>termine the lowest possible percolation threshold values of polyaniline, but high surface area<br />

substrates can also be readily prepared using this approach.<br />

xi

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!