Dielectric and morphological properties of PAni-DBSA blended with polystyrene sulfonic acid

Polyaniline (PAni) doped with organic protonic and polymeric acids shows better solubility and processability by conventional methods. In this work, we report the results of polyaniline doped with dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (PAni-DBSA) and reprocessing with polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSS) in an internal mixer, to obtain a conductive polymer blend (PAni-DBSA/PSS). Impedance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy of the samples were evaluated. Significantly different morphologies were observed for PAni-DBSA and PAni-DBSA/PSS complexes. The effect of different degrees of doping with DBSA and the influence of PSS on the dielectric properties of PAni were investigated by impedance spectroscopy in frequency range 10 Hz-30 MHz. The different complexes present two dielectric relaxation processes suggesting two types of chain structure. We show that DBSA improves the doping range of the PAni/PSS complexes and the homogeneity of the blends. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.