Fundamentals on Polyaniline based Composites

The background of work carried out highlighting on polyaniline, N-substituted polyaniline and acid-doped polyaniline. The problems associated with this polymer and promises it hold are also discussed. It also provides introduction to the nanocomposites of polyaniline/nanoclays, and polyaniline/polyacrylic acid. As well, we have described the polymer stabilized intrinsically conducting polymer composites. The state of the art polymer stabilised intrinsically conducting composites have been reviewed. At last, we have reviewed on the CH4 gas sensing since it has been recognized as one of the inflammable gas sensors. The main problem on the CH4 gas sensor lies on its room temperature operation and detection of low ppm level concentration.

Electrochemical Studies on Corrosion Resistance of Coatings Based on Polyaniline and Silica Gel

Organic acid doped polyaniline (PANI), hybrid with silica gel (SiG) and composites with metal primer have been prepared by chemical oxidative polymerization of double-distilled aniline in an acidic medium at 0-5 °C in an ice bath using ammonium persulphate as oxidant and p-toluene sulphonic acid (p-TSA) as the dopant. The anticorrosive property of PANI coatings containing alkyd primer, zinc chromate and silica gel was investigated. The coatings were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The corrosion studies were carried out in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. On introduction of SiG, PANI, and PANI-SiG hybrid, the corrosion current decreased from 0.03626 μA to 0.007856 μA, 0.02042 μA, and 0.011 μA, respectively. The penetration rates calculated in mm/yr. for the composites: SiG/Primer, PANI/Primer and PANI-SiG/Primer were 0.430× 10-4, 1.110× 10-4, and 0.599 × 10-4, respectively and that of neat primer was 1.977 × 10-4. The corrosion protection efficiency of the primer was improved up to 7% on introduction of the PANI-based fillers. The 5 wt% of 1:1 PANI-SiG/primer composite, which contains 2.5wt% of PANI, showed better results than that of 5wt% PANI in Primer and these results are very close to that of 5wt% SiG/Primer composites.

Secondary Dopants of Electrically Conducting Polyanilines

Secondary dopants and the doping methods were identified for increasing the electrical conductivity of a highly processable and a primarily doped polyaniline dinonylnaphthalene sulfonic acid (PANI-DNNSA). The secondary doping was carried out using film, solution, and vapor doping methods. The doping methods and functional groups of secondary dopants were observed to play a critical role for inducing electrical characteristics of polyaniline. When secondary film doping method and p-toluenesulfonic acid were used, the electrical conductivity of the secondary doped polyaniline was measured to be increased from 0.16 to 334 S/cm. A novel vapor annealing doping method was developed to incorporate secondary dopants into solution cast polyaniline films.