NOVEL MEMBRANES FROM CONDUCTING POLYMERS

The first part of this paper presents the preparation and morphologica l studies of high surface area polypyrrole with fibrillar morphology. Mode of fibre growth within host membrane pores has been examined by u ltra-microtome techniques. The rate of fibre growth in different solve nts has been determined. The second part of this paper describes the f ormation of conducting composite membranes of polypyrrole with in-hous e prepared and commercial (''Biotran'') microporous polyamides. The co nducting polymer was chemically polymerized using several techniques i n association with the membranes in these studies. Surface and cross-s ectional membrane morphology was studied by high-resolution field emis sion scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Environmental stability of composite membranes h as been examined by measuring the conductivity as a function of time.