Development of Polyaniline/Epoxy Composite as a Prospective Solder Replacement Material

In this paper we present a novel application of a conducting polymer, polyaniline, as a conductive filler for the development of isotropically conductive adhesives. We have developed isotropically conductive adhesives using protonic acid-doped polyaniline as the conducting filler in an anhydride-cured epoxy system. Fundamental material characterization like DSC, TGA and SEM of the samples was conducted to study their properties. Conductivity of these materials was measured by the four probe method while impact properties were studied by lap shear and drop tests. Samples were aged at 85 degrees C/100% RH for more than 500h and the effects of aging were studied. Conductivity value of 10-3S/cm was obtained at 25% PANI filler concentration. These results demonstrate the potential of such systems to function as isotropically conductive adhesives.