Tuning the Conductivity of Polyaniline through Doping by Means of Single Precursor Vapor Phase Infiltration

Abstract

This work describes a novel single precursor vapor phase infiltration (VPI) process to dope polyaniline (PANI). The infiltration is performed with the metal containing atomic layer deposition precursors MoCl5 or SnCl4. The conductivities are assessed with four‐point probe measurements and show significant enhancements by up to 6 orders of magnitude, confirming the efficiency of the VPI process. Furthermore, it is found that the conductivities of PANI/MoCl5 and PANI/SnCl4 outperform the conductivity of HCl‐doped PANI if exposed to elevated temperatures (150 °C) in vacuum. The chemical changes resulting from the infiltration of PANI are characterized applying FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy images show that the morphologies of the samples do not alter after the infiltration process.

Vapor phase infiltration of zinc oxide into thin films of cis-polyisoprene rubber

“…These final hybrid materials are intermixed organicinorganic hybrid structures with properties distinctly different from the original polymer. 11,12 For example, VPI has been used to increase the toughness of spider silk, 13 increase the electrical conductivity of semiconducting polymers, 14 and increase the solvent stability and separation performance of membranes. 15 A recent investigation examined the use of vapor phase infiltration to incorporate inorganic materials into block co-polymers containing a rubber (elastomeric) block.…”

A smart functional surfactant activated conductive polymer coated on paper with ultra-sensitive humidity sensing characteristics

“…Furthermore, the crystallinity and decrease in PANI nanorods size upon the inclusion of SLS might have contributed in enhancing electrical conductivity. Overall, SLS effectively acted as a protonation agent, which leads to an increase in the electrical properties of PANI by forming an anilium/SLS compound [29,[58][59][60].…”

Recent Advances in Sequential Infiltration Synthesis (SIS) of Block Copolymers (BCPs)

“…Besides depending on different oxidation states of the polymer (fully reduced leucoemeraldine, half oxidized emeraldine base and fully oxidized pernigraniline states) [ 98 ], the PANI conductivity can be modified through SIS doping. In 2017, Wang et al [ 99 ] reported doping of PANI with metal chlorides by considering and precursors. In particular, it was observed that the conductivity of the infiltrated polymer (measured by means of four-probe techniques to avoid the effect of contact resistances) is correlated to the number of infiltration cycles and can be enhanced by up to six orders of magnitude.…”