Conducting composite films based on polypyrrole and crosslinked poly(styrene‐butyl acrylate‐hydroxyethyl acrylate)

Abstract

Polypyrrole/crosslinked poly(styrene-butyl acrylate-hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PSBH) conductive composite films were designed to obtain high conductivity and good mechanical properties, and were prepared by vapor-phase polymerization of pyrrole within the silicon-crosslinked PSBH network using anhydrous ferric chloride as oxidant. The properties of the conducting composite film, such as conductivity, were strongly dependent on their synthetic conditions, such as the amount of ferric chloride and tetraethyl orthosilicate and the nature and weight ratio of the solvent in pyrrole solution. Above all, the most interesting point was the effect that solvent in pyrrole solution had on the conductivity. Using methanol as solvent, the conductivity was as high as 15 S/cm, increased by two orders of magnitude as compared with that without solvent. The conducting composite exhibited good mechanical properties (tensile strength, 10.3 MPa; Young's modulus, 178.9 MPa; elongation yield, 170%). © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 64: 2293–2298, 1997