Synthesis and characterization of water-soluble conducting copolymer poly (aniline-co-o-aminobenzenesulfonic acid)

Abstract

The water-soluble conducting copolymer of poly(aniline-co-o-aminobenzenesulfonic acid) (PAOABSA) was synthesized directly from aniline and o-aminobenzenesulfonic acid and characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR, UV–Vis, X-ray powder diffraction, and XPS. The room-temperature conductivity of the copolymer can be changed by controlling the molar fraction of the starting materials, and its maximum conductivity at room temperature can reach 3.4 S/cm, which is comparable with polyaniline (PANI) synthesized by the standard method and sulfonated polyaniline (SPAN) having a high degree of sulfonation reported by Wei et al. It was found that the roomtemperature conductivity of the copolymer decreases with increase of the degree of sulfonation because of the introduction of the SO group reducing the conjugation of the polymer chain. On the other hand, its solubility in 1.0M NaOH solution increases with increase of the degree of sulfonation due to the SO group linking directly on the phenyl rings of the polymer chain. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 3013–3019, 1998