The influence of some factors on the electrical conductivity and particle size of core/shell polystyrene/polyaniline composites

Abstract

The electrically conductive, micron-sized, core/shell polystyrene (PS)/polyaniline (PANI) composite particles were synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of micron-sized PS particles in 1 M HCl. The conditions of the dispersion polymerization of styrene were optimized. The influence of the initiator type employed for the chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline and the aniline (ANI) concentration on the PS/PANI particle size and size distribution and their conductivity was investigated. The obtained results show that the conductivity of the samples increased with increasing ANI concentration. The conductivity of the PS/PANI composite particles obtained with the highest ANI concentration was of the same order of magnitude as that for PANI powder. The particle size did not depend on the concentration of ANI, while the particle size distribution was narrower at higher concentrations of ANI.