Investigation on Poly(acrylate-co-acrylamide)/polyanilineConducting Hydrogel

In the present work, conducting poly(acrylate-co-acrylamide)/polyaniline (PAANa-co-AM/PANI) hydrogel was synthesized and its structural and electrical properties were studied in detail. The composite material was prepared by two step interpenetrating network solution polymerization of aniline inside the poly(acrylate-co-acrylamide) hydrogel matrix. The polymerization reactions were carried out in aqueous medium and in the presence of ammonium persulphate (APS) as initiator and N, N’-methylene bisacrylamide (NMBA) as crosslinker. Effects of crosslinker, initiator, aniline monomer, acrylamide amount and particle size of superabsorbent polymer on the synthesis and conductivity of (PAANa-co-AM/PANI) hydrogel were studied in detail. The structure and morphological analysis was done using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniqes. The conductivity of P(AANa-co-AM)/PANI was found as high as 0.81 mS cm-1 with optimized synthesis conditions