PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE POLYPROPYLENE POLYPYRROLE COMPOSITES/

Polypropylene particles 35 mu m in diameter were chemically coated wit h polypyrrole. The content of polypyrrole varied from 1.1 to 10.4 wt%. Polypropylene/polypyrrole (PP/PPy) composite films about 0.2 mm thick were prepared by compression moulding of modified powders. The electr ical conductivity of compression moulded samples depends on the concen tration of polypyrrole, and reached values from 4 x 10(-10) to 5 x 10( -9) S cm(-1), which is about seven orders of magnitude higher than the conductivity in the blends prepared by mechanical mixing of PP and PP y in the same PPy concentration range. The PP/PPy composites were char acterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, light microsco py, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). SEM pictures showed significant different in coverage of the su rface of the PP particles, while the concentration change was within t he range from 1.1 wt% to 8.9 wt% PPy. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd