THE MECHANISM OF THE ANILINE CONDENSATION STUDIED ON THE EXAMPLE OF SYNTHESIS OF WATER-SOLUBLE POLYMERS

The synthesis of water-soluble polyaniline was studied using spectrosc opic methods in the presence of a sulfonic acid with a long substituen t. A new two-stage mechanism is proposed for the reaction. At the firs t stage, oligomers of pernigraniline are formed due to aniline being o xidized by ammonium persulfate. At the second stage these oligomers re act yielding polymeric emeraldine salt. The hypothesis is proposed tha t for the imperfections which are present in polyaniline obtained resp onsible are the appearance of bipolarons in the emeraldine salt and al so the presence of amorphous phase in both emeraldine salt and emerald ine base.