Improved conductivity of films of ultra high molecular weight polyethyleneand polyaniline blends prepared from an m-cresol/decaline mixture

Blends of polyaniline (PANI) doped with camphor sulfonic acid and ultra hig h molecular weight polyethylene were prepared using a mixture of m-cresol a nd decaline under conditions that promote specific interactions between the polymer, dopant and solvent mixture, leading to films with improved electr ical conductivity. Such interactions are in agreement with the formation of supramolecular structures based on hydrogen bonding and phenyl stacking re ported in the literature for similar systems. The results from the blend ch aracterization by tensile strength and electrical conductivity measurements , differential scanning calorimetry, UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy are presented and discussed. Low percolat ion threshold and high conductivity were obtained, for instance, 10(-6) and 10(-2) S/cm, for blends containing 1 and 5% of PANI, respectively. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.