To improve adhesion between polypyrrole and glass, new pyrrole-substituted organotrialkoxysilanes coupling agents are synthesized and studied. Solubility, hydrolysis, and selfcondensation features in aqueous solutions are investigated by IR, 1 H, and 29 Si NMR spectroscopies. Varying the experimental conditions of pyrrole chemical polymerization on glass fibers surfaces indicates that a preliminary substrate treatment with these coupling agents and the use of a chemical vapor deposition process jointly lead to very thin (around 50 nm) polypyrrole layers with a particularly even and homogeneous aspect and adhering perfectly to glass surfaces. This last point has been plainly demonstrated by pull-out tests on conductive fibers embedded in resin and by tensile pull-off tests on silica plates. An unexpected effect of the use of specific silanes, when compared to commercial coupling agents, is an enhancement of polypyrrole conductivity (typically 150-200 S/cm), which can be related to the high regularity of the deposit.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.