Morphology of conducting polymers

Conductive polymers have received increasing interest in the last decade due to their potential applications. The synthesis of molecular conductors, for example, is a field of intensive research with the purpose of producing objects in the nanometer scale. Therefore, control of the morphology of conducting polymers is very challenging for the production of molecular wires (nanowires) or tubes. Appropriate templates for the confined polymerization of conductive polymers are required to give them a controlled shape and dimension. 

PANI micro- and nanotubes have been prepared by chemical polymerization using fullerene, NSA derivative, and azobenzene sulphonic acid [178, 179]. PPy microfiber and microtube were also fabricated in the presence of jd-NSA and the morphology of conducting polymer could be tuned by controlling the concentration of /3-NSA [101]. 

Precise control over the size and morphology of conducting polymers at the nanoscale is essential to improving the performance of related sensors. As mentioned before, polymers are highly unstable at the nanometer scale, which is one of the greatest obstacles in building... 

A large number of conducting polymers can be synthesised via the use of catalysts [28-30], but generally little control can be exercised over the morphology of the product and purification of the material obtained can be problematical. In recent years however, a number of alternative synthetic routes have been devised which involve soluble precursor polymers which can be more easily purified and cast onto substrates, with subsequent conversion (usually by heating) to the desired product, and... 

The thermal properties of fillers differ significantly from those of thermoplastics. This has a beneficial effect on productivity and processing. Decreased heat capacity and increased heat conductivity reduce cooling time [16]. Changing thermal properties of the composites result in a modification of the skin-core morphology of crystalline polymers and thus in the properties of injection molded parts as well. Large differences in the thermal properties of the components, on the other hand, lead to the development of thermal stresses, which also influence the performance of the composite under external load. 

Reduction of a conducting polymer, with the simultaneous expulsion of anions, is generally expected to result in films becoming more compact, and this can be studied by SEM. For these PEDOT films, the morphology of the polymer grown in acetonitrile/ BU4NCIO4 became more compact upon reduction, but this effect was not clearly observed in the other films [99]. 

At this point, the application of ionic liquids for the electrosynthesis of conducting polymers has been demonstrated by a number of authors and some differences between this and the use of molecular solvents reported. In a number of these cases an improvement in properties was reported (most extensively a smoother polymer morphology and increased cycle life) but the full range of benefits of using ionic liquids is yet to be fully realized or amply demonstrated. There is clearly... 

S. Bose, A.R. Bhattacharyya, R.A. Khare, S.S Kamath, and A.R. Kulkarni, The role of molecular interactions and selective localization of multiwall carbon nanotubes on the electrical conductivity and phase morphology of multicomponent polymer blends (manuscript in preparation). 

Organic Collective effects of preparation method of conducting polymers, polymer morphology, properties of the substrate/film interface 24... 

---