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A water‐dispersible conducting nanocomposite from suspension polymerisation of thiophene in presence of N ‐vinylcarbazole
Author(s) -
Ballav Nirmalya,
Biswas Mukul
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.1281
Subject(s) - thermogravimetric analysis , thiophene , differential scanning calorimetry , polythiophene , materials science , polymer chemistry , composite number , polymerization , nanocomposite , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , polymer , glass transition , conductive polymer , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , physics , engineering , thermodynamics
The polymerisation of a mixture of thiophene and N ‐vinylcarbazole was achieved in aqueous suspension in the presence of nanodimensional alumina and FeCl 3 as oxidant. The resultant composite was found to contain both polythiophene (PTP) and poly( N ‐vinylcarbazole) (PNVC) components even after reflux in benzene, which would remove any PNVC homopolymer. The presence of the individual polymer components was endorsed by FTIR spectroscopic analyses. Thermogravimetric analyses showed that the overall stabilities of the composite and the corresponding homopolymers were in the order: PTP–Al 2 O 3 > PTP > PTP–PNVC–Al 2 O 3 > PNVC. Differential thermal analyses studies showed the manifestation of two different exotherms corresponding to the presence of two different polymeric constituents in the PTP–PNVC–Al 2 O 3 composite. Differential scanning calorimetry studies revealed two glass‐transition temperatures ( T g ) suggesting the presence of two polymeric moieties in the PTP–PNVC composite. Scanning electron micrographs of the PTP–Al 2 O 3 and PTP–PNVC–Al 2 O 3 composites showed distinctive morphological patterns. Transmission electron microscopic images of the composite revealed that the average particle size varied between 20 and 80 nm. DC conductivities of the composites were of the order of 10 −6 S cm −1 . Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry