a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal
a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal
a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
allows for a method to tailor the processability of sulfonic acid-doped PANI(Hartikainen, et al.,<br />
2001; Ruokolainen, et al., 2000). It has been observed that for polymer blends containing PANI,<br />
a range of conductivity between 10 -10 S cm -1 to 10 -1 S cm -1 (melt processing) and 10 -10 S cm -1 to<br />
10 S cm -1 (solution processing) can be achieved(Panipol, 2000).<br />
The blending of PANI with a variety of classical polymers to improve the mechanical properties<br />
of PANI and also to <strong>de</strong>crease the percolation threshold of the conductive polymers has been<br />
extensively studied. Conductive binary polymer blends can <strong>de</strong>monstrate good mechanical<br />
properties with conductivity varying from 10 −11 S cm -1 (almost insulating) to 300 S cm -1 . It<br />
should be noted that different techniques including melt-blending, solution blending, in-situ<br />
polymerization, and dispersion mixing have different influence on PANI morphology and<br />
subsequently on properties. For instance, in the case of a PS/PANI blend, although melt-blending<br />
results in a higher PANI percolation threshold than dispersion mixing, a significant improvement<br />
in mechanical properties is achieved via the melt blending approach(Segal, et al., 2001). Most<br />
studies of polymer blends containing PANI have been performed in solution and only a few<br />
melt-blending studies have been reported(Ikkala et al., 1995; Narkis, Zilberman, & Siegmann,<br />
1997; Shacklette, et al., 1993; Zilberman, et al., 1997). Polystyrene(PS)(Woo Jin, et al., 2003),<br />
Cellulose acetate(Planes, et al., 1998), Polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA)(Morgan, et al., 2001),<br />
Polyethylene(PE), Polypropylene(PP), Polyami<strong>de</strong>(PA)(Qinghua, et al., 2002),<br />
Polyimi<strong>de</strong>(PI)(Moon Gyu & Seung Soon, 2001), Polyvinyl chlori<strong>de</strong>(PVC)(Chipara, et al., 1998),<br />
Polyurethane(PU)(Rodrigues & Akcelrud, 2003), and a wi<strong>de</strong> variety of thermoplastic<br />
elastomers(Dong-Uk, et al., 2001; Ong, et al., 1997) have been blen<strong>de</strong>d with PANI using a<br />
variety of techniques other than melt-blending(Ikkala, et al., 1995; Narkis, et al., 1997; Segal, et<br />
al., 2001; Shacklette, et al., 1993; Zilberman, et al., 1997).<br />
A conductivity value of 0.1 S cm -1 for 20 wt% of PANI is observed for PS/PANI blend prepared<br />
by in-situ polymerization(Woo Jin, et al., 2003). Using a polymer solution blending approach,<br />
Cao et al.(Cao, Smith, & Heeger, 1992) <strong>de</strong>veloped a processing method for a host polymer of<br />
PMMA and polyaniline optimally doped with camphor sulfonic acid. Using this method the<br />
value of electrical conductivity could be increased to 1 S cm -1 for loading levels of polyaniline<br />
as low as 0.3% (vol/vol)(Yang, Y. Cao, P. Smith, & Heeger, 1993b). The solution blending of<br />
PANI and its <strong>de</strong>rivatives with poly(vinyli<strong>de</strong>ne fluori<strong>de</strong>)(PVDF) have attracted significant interest<br />
due to some of the special properties of PVDF, namely, excellent mechanical properties,<br />
100