Chemical grafting of poly(aniline) and poly(o-toluidine) onto PET fibre - a comparative study

Oxidative chemical polymerization of aniline and o-toluidine was carried ou t by using peroxo monosulphate as a lone initiator in an aqueous acidic med ium in the presence of PET fibre. The PET fibre was tested for chemical gra fting of poly(aniline) (PANI) and poly(o-toluidine) (POT) onto that. The co ntent of PANI (wt%) in the backbone was found to vary while varying the [mo nomer], [initiator] and amount of fibre during the polymerization of anilin e and o-toluidine. Various graft parameters like the rate of grafting (R-g) , % grafting and % efficiency were evaluated. The rate of homopolymerizatio n (R-h) was also followed in both cases. The chemical grafting was confirme d using FTIR, UV-Visible and conductivity measurements. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience Ltd, All rights reserved.