Admicellar polymerization of doped polypyrrole and polythiophene on natural rubber

Abstract

Polypyrrole (PPy) and polythiophene (PTh) are good electrically conductive polymers; however, they have poor processibility and their flexibility is limited. To overcome these limitations, electrochemical and admicellar polymerization with Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) is used. The admicellar polymerization of PPy and PTh by electrochemical method over natural rubber particles is investigated by varying monomer content and applied voltages. The success of synthesis was confirmed by density, FTIR, SEM, TGA, and TEM. Mechanical properties of admicelled rubber were revealed by tensile strength and hardness test. The conductivity of the modified rubber is about 10⁻⁹ to 10⁻⁴ S/cm for PPy and about 10⁻¹²to 10⁻⁶ S/cm, both of which are much higher than that of natural rubber by several orders (the conductivity of pure natural rubber is about 10⁻¹⁵ S/cm).