Hydrogen Bonding Effects on the Electrical Properties and Phase Morphology of Polyaniline Blends

Blends of dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid-doped polyaniline (PANI-DBSA) with either polyacrylonitrile copolymer (PAN) or polystyrene (PS) were solution cast. The investigation focused on the interaction between the components, the morphology and the resulting electrical conductivity of blends. The results showed that with the same PANI-DBSA content the conductivity of PANI-DBSA/PAN was higher than that of PANI-DBSA/PS. PANI-DBSA was dispersed uniformly in the PAN matrix and its cluster size was rather smaller than in the PS matrix. This is attributed to hydrogen bonding between the carbonyl groups in PAN and the imine groups in PANI, which should lead to better compatibility between PANI-DBSA and PAN.