Polymers have been studied for their possible use in such fields as conduction, light emission, and corrosion protection. The scope of applications is constantly being broadened through the use of variously "enhanced" polymers. Enhancement can take the form of doping, derivatization, stretching, heat treatment , or even blending with other polymers such as polyester or polystyrene. Each of these modifications has differing effects on the physical properties of the materials which we study.
Recent Advances
One of the methods mentioned above, derivatization, was utilized in the synthesis of sulfonated polyaniline, SPAN. Through the use of the chemistry facilities in the Epstein laboratory, sulfonic acid groups were attached to emeraldine base, EB, in the hope of affecting the conductivity of the resulting polymer. The synthesized SPAN was then characterized by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and ultraviolet/visible (UV/Vis) spectroscopy. The resultant material had an increased conductivity over underivatized EB and is now being studied in its sodium salt form, NaSPAN.
Publications
X. Wei and A.J. Epstein, Synthesis of Highly Sulfonated Polyaniline, Synthetic Metals 74, 123-125 (1995).
J. Feng, W. Zhang, A.G. MacDiarmid, and A.J. Epstein, Synthesis and Characterization of Oligomeric Anilines, Proc. Soc. of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC 1997), Toronto, Ontario, April 27-May 2, 1997, 1373-1377 (1997).
W.J. Zhang, J. Feng, A.G. MacDiarmid, and A.J. Epstein, Synthesis of Oligomeric Anilines , Synthetic Metals 84, 119-120 (1997).
X.-L. Wei, Y.Z. Wang, S.M. Long, C. Bobeczko and A.J. Epstein, Synthesis and Physical Properties of Highly Sulfonated Polyaniline, Journal of the American Chemical Society 118, 2545-2555 (1996).
Y. Xia, A.G. MacDiarmid and A.J. Epstein, Room Temperature Synthesis of Poly(2,5-dimethoxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene) by the Chloride Sulfonium Salt Route, Advanced Materials 6, 293-295 (1994).
Created by Darren Gebler and Keith Brenneman. Maintained by John Rohrbacher. Last updated 6/2/00.