Sulfonated polystyrene template

Y. Yang, Y. Chu, F.Y. Yang, and Y.P. Zhang, Uniform hollow conductive polymer microspheres synthesized with the sulfonated polystyrene template. Mater. Chem. Phys., 92(1), 164-171 (2005). 

The addition of templates enabled the enzymatic production of conducting polymers with well-defined structure.67 In using sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) as a template, the resulting polymer was soluble in water and the conductivity reached 5 x 10 3 S/cm without doping. Besides SPS, a strong acid surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid) or poly(vi-nylphosphonic acid) provided a suitable local template environment leading to the formation of conducting poly aniline. 

Other studies in 2000 by Drew et al. reported that it is very difficult to spin fibers of PANI complexed to sulfonated polystyrene (PANFSPS), even when solutions containing sodium chloride and dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid sodium salt were used to lower the surface tension and thereby enhance electrospinning [16,17]. However, PANFSPS nanofibers can be produced by adding a carrier polymer such as PEO, polyacrylonitrile, or polyurethane. Also reported was the use of electrostatically layered sulfonated polystyrene as a template for the surface polymerization of conjugated polymers in their conducting form. Enzymatic synthesis of PANI and a copolymer of pyrrole and PEDOT was done on electrospun nanofiber... 

A different method of S3mthesizing polyanUine was reported [77]. It uses an enzyme, horseradish peroxidase, in the presence of hydrogen peroxide to polymerize aniline. To prevent reactions at the ortho positions of the phenyl rings that yield insoluble branched materials, a polyelectrolyte template, like sulfonated polystyrene, was used. The polyelectrolyte aligns the monomers, dopes the polyaniline to the conducting form, and forms an irreversible complex with the polyaniline to keep it water-soluble [77]. The conductivity of the complex increases with increasing polyaniline to sulfonated polystyrene molar ratios. Conductivities of0.005 S/cm are obtained with the pure complex and increase to 0.15 S/cm after additimial doping by exposure to HCl vapor [77]. 

Since in situ PEDT polymers are quite insoluble in most commonly used solvents, in situ PEDT cannot be easily made into a processable, coatable solution. However, an industrially usefiil form of oxidized PEDT can be made by aqueous oxidative polymerization of the EDT monomer in the presence of a template polymer, usually polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSS or PSSA). PSS is a commercially available water-soluble polymer and can thus serve as a good dispersant for aqueous PEDT. Polymerization with the oxidant sodium peroxodisulfate yields a PEDT PSS-complex in its conductive, cationic form (Figure 10.5). 

HC Starck is also involved in another significant development, the synthesis of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDT) by in situ oxidative polymerisation or as a complex with polystyrene sulfonate as a template. There are a growing number of electrical and electronic applications for this material including antistatic coatings, capacitor cathodes, through-hole plating, OLED, organic field effect transistors, photovoltaics and electrochromics. 

---