Epoxidised natural rubber–polyaniline dodecylbenzenesulfonate (ENR-PAni.DBSA) blends with adjustable electrostrictive properties

Abstract

Sulphur-vulcanised epoxidised natural rubber–polyaniline dodecylbenzenesulfonate (ENR-PAni.DBSA) blends with useful electrical conductivities (up to 10 −1 S/cm) and adjustable electrostrictive behaviour were successfully produced via a thermomechanical mixing method. A reasonably high level of compatibility between ENR and PAni.DBSA was observed from both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy studies. As found from both electrostrictive strain ( S z ) tests, ENR-PAni.DBSA blends with 10.0–30.0 wt% of PAni.DBSA content possessed the best electrostrictive response ( S z up to 12.25%) with applied electric field strengths up to 50 V/µm. Apart from this, blends with very low and very high PAni.DBSA contents (i.e. ≤5.0 wt% and ≥40.0 wt%) had much poorer electrostrictive responses under the same level of applied electrical field, which is due to their lower dielectric properties and higher level of phase separation between ENR and PAni.DBSA.