SEMI-CONDUCTIVE COMPOSITES BASED ON NANOSTRUCTURED POLYANILINE OR CELLULOSE-POLYANILINE PARTICLES

NORMA E. MARCOVICH; ULISES M. CASADO; RAÚL M. QUINTANILLA; MIRTA I. ARANGUREN

Praga

Conferencia; 7th International Conference on Nanostructured Polymers and Nanocomposites; 2012

Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry - Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague (IMC)

Among intrinsically conducting polymers, polyaniline (PANI) is unique due to its good environmental stability, straightforward synthesis, and adjustable electrical properties [1-2]. In particular low-dimensional nanostructured PANI, such as nanoparticles, nanofibers and nanotubes, nanosheets and nanobelts, have received considerable attention owing to the huge number of potential applications. For some applications, however, conducting polymers present certain deficiencies regarding specially the mechanical performance [1] and thus, technological uses of neat conducting polymers are not very likely. However, the unique combination of electronic and mechanical properties of blends of conducting polymers with conventional polymers seems to have great promise for many applications, being the most important in antistatic materials [3]. Conductivities for antistatic applications need not to be high (10-6 - 10-5 S/cm ranges are sufficient). Thus, the aim of this work is to prepare and characterize composite films based on a segmented polyurethane (SMPu) reinforced with PANI fibers or with cellulose nanofibers coated with PANI. The effect of the concentration of each filler on the mechanical and dielectric properties of the resulting composites was evaluated.