The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 11 No 1 (2007): 133 – 138

 

 

PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CONDUCTING POLYMER COMPOSITE FILMS: POLYPYRROLE AND POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL

 

Lim Mei Yee, Anuar Kassim*,  H.N.M Ekramul Mahmud, Atan Mohd Sharif and Md Jelas Haron

 

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia,

43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

 

*Corresponding author:  anuar@fsas.upm.edu.my

 

Abstract

Polypyrrole-poly ethylene glycol (Ppy -PEG)  composites  were  synthesized  by  electrochemical  method  using  p-toluene sulfonate as a dopant in aqueous medium. Polyethylene glycol was used as the insulating  material in order  to impart enhanced mechanical properties to the conducting polymer composite films.  The  composite films were synthesized with various percentages of PEG , and were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy , conductivity measurement , optical microscopy (OP),  X-ray  diffraction  (XRD)  and  dynamic  mechanical  analysis  (DMA).  The  FT-IR  result  reveals  the  successful incorporation of PEG into the polypyrrole structure forming Ppy-PEG composite films. The conductivity of the composite films prepared from using 0.20% PEG was found to exhibit the highest conductivity (61.28 Scm^-1) among all the prepared composite films measured at room temperature. The optical microscopy of Ppy -PEG shows the globular surface morphology. The XRD analysis of Ppy -PEG composite films shows that the composite films are amorphous. The enhanced mechanical properties of the Ppy -PEG comp osite films are the direct consequence of incorporating PEG in the polypyrrole structure.

 

Keywords:  Polypyrrole; polyethylene glycol; electrochemical method; p-toluene sulfonate.

 

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