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Self‐Stabilized Nanoparticles of Intrinsically Conducting Copolymers from 5‐Sulfonic‐2‐Anisidine
Author(s) -
Li XinGui,
Lü QiuFeng,
Huang MeiRong
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.200701002
Subject(s) - materials science , nanoparticle , dispersity , copolymer , chemical engineering , comonomer , nanocomposite , polymerization , polymer chemistry , particle size , transmission electron microscopy , polymer , nanotechnology , composite material , engineering
Novel copolymer nanoparticles with inherent self‐stability, narrow size distribution, and high electrical conductivity are facilely and productively synthesized by the oxidative precipitation polymerization of 5‐sulfonic‐2‐anisidine and aniline in acidic medium without any external stabilizer. The structures of the copolymer particles are systematically characterized by IR and UV/Vis spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, laser particle‐size analysis, atomic force microscopy, field‐emission scanning electron microscopy, and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy. The comonomer ratio, oxidant/monomer ratio, and polymerization temperature and medium can be used to optimize the size and conductivity of the nanoparticles. It is found that the nanoparticles exhibit a minimal size and polydispersity index of around 53 nm and 1.045, respectively. Nanocomposite films of the nanoparticles with diacetyl and ethyl celluloses show good thermostability and a low percolation threshold of 0.08 wt%, at which the films retain 89% of the transparency, 96–98% of the strength, and 10 8 times the conductivity of the matrix film. The synthesis of sulfoanisidine copolymer nanoparticles is thus achieved without the use of external stabilizer, which opens up a simple and general route to the fabrication of nanostructured polymer materials with controllable size, narrow size distribution, intrinsic self‐stability, strong dispersibility, high purity, and optimizable electroconductivity.