The present study describes the possibility to polymerize aniline within wood veneers to obtain a semi-conducting material with solid wood acting as the base template. It was determined that it is possible to synthesize the intrinsically conductive polymer (ICP) polyaniline in situ within the wood structure of Southern yellow pine veneers, combining the strength of the natural wood structure with the conductivity of the impregnated polymer. It was found that polyaniline is uniformly dispersed within the wood structure by light microscopy and FT-IR imaging. A weight percent gain in the range of 3-12 wt % was obtained with a preferential formation in the wood structure and cell wall, rather than in the lumen. The modified wood was found to be less hydrophilic with the addition of phosphate doped polyaniline as observed by equilibrium water swelling studies. While wood itself is insulating, the modified veneers had conductivities of 1 × 10(-4) to 1 × 10(-9) S cm(-1), demonstrating the ability to tune the conductivity and allowing for materials with a wide range of applications, from anti-static to charge-dispersing materials. Furthermore, the modified veneers had lower total and peak heat releases, as determined by cone calorimetry, because of the char properties of the ICP. This is of interest if these materials are to be used in building and furniture applications where flame retardance is of importance.

The high interest in applications of conducting polymers, especially polyaniline (PANI), makes it important to overcome limitations for effective usage due to poor processability and solubility. One promising approach is to make blends of PANI in polymeric resins. However, in this approach other problems related to the difficulty of achieving a homogeneous PANI dispersion arise. The present article is focused on this general problem, and we discuss how the synthesis method, choice of dopant and solvent as well as interfacial energies influence the dispersibility. For this purpose, different synthesis methods and dopants have been employed to prepare nanostructures of polyaniline. Dynamic light scattering analysis of dispersions of the synthesized particles in several solvents was employed in order to understand how the choice of solvent affects PANI aggregation. Further information on this subject was achieved by scanning electron microscopy studies of PANI powders dried from various solutions. On the basis of these results, acetone was found to be a suitable dispersion medium for PANI. The polymer matrix used to make the blends in this work is a UV-curing solvent-free resin. Therefore, there is no low molecular weight liquid in the system to facilitate the mixing process and promote formation of homogeneous dispersions. Thus, a good compatibility of the components becomes crucial. For this reason, surface tension and contact angle measurements were utilized for characterizing the surface energy of the PANI particles and the polyester acrylate (PEA) resin, and also for calculating the interfacial energy between these two components that revealed good compatibility within the PANI/PEA blend. A novel technique, based on centrifugal sedimentation analysis, was employed in order to determine the PANI particle size in PEA resin, and high dispersion stability of the PANI/PEA blends was suggested by evaluation of the sedimentation data.

Composites of nanostructured polyaniline (PANI) conducting polymer in a polyester acrylate (PEA) formulation were made to provide conductive organic coatings. The effect of the presence and amount of PANI on the photocuring performance of the ultraviolet (UV)‐curable acrylate system has been investigated employing real‐time Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as the main technique. Longer initial retardation of the radical polymerization and lower rates of cross‐linking reactions were observed for dispersions containing PANI of higher than 3wt.%. The PEA/PANI samples were more affected than the neat PEA resin by the changes in UV light intensity and oxygen accessibility during UV curing. Samples with higher PANI content, of up to 10wt.%, were tested and could be partially cured even at UV light intensities as low as 2 mW cm−2 when the oxygen replenishment into the system was inhibited. Thermal analysis revealed that the presence of PANI did not induce any significant change in Tg of the cured system, meaning that early decrease in mobility and vitrification is not the reason for lower ultimate conversion of the dispersions with higher PANI content compared with the neat PEA resin. Curing under strong UV lamps, of 1.5 W cm−2 intensity, made it possible to reach high degrees of conversion on films with similar mechanical properties independent of the PANI content. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The presence and characteristics of a connected network of polyaniline (PANI) within a composite coating based on polyester acrylate (PEA) has been investigated. The bulk electrical conductivity of the composite was measured by impedance spectroscopy. It was found that the composite films containing PANI have an electrical conductivity level in the range of semiconductors (order of 10(-3) S cm(-1)), which suggests the presence of a connected network of the conductive phase. The nanoscopic distribution of such a network within the cured film was characterized by PeakForce tunneling atomic force microscopy (AFM). This method simultaneously provides local information about surface topography and nanomechanical properties, together with electrical conductivity arising from conductive paths connecting the metallic substrate to the surface of the coating. The data demonstrates that a PEA-rich layer exists at the composite-air interface, which hinders the conductive phase to be fully detected at the surface layer. However, by exposing the internal structure of the composites using a microtome, a much higher population of a conductive network of PANI, with higher elastic modulus than the PEA matrix, was observed and characterized. Local current-voltage (I-V) spectroscopy was utilized to investigate the conduction mechanism within the nanocomposite films, and revealed non-Ohmic characteristics of the conductive network.