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A detailed comparative study of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in conjunction with d.c. electrical conductivity has been undertaken to know about the charge transport mechanism in polyaniline (PANI) doped with monovalent and multivalent protonic acids. This work is in continuation of our previous work for further understanding the conduction mechanism in conducting polymers. The results reveal that the polarons and bipolarons are the main charge carriers formed during doping process and these cause increase in electrical conductivity not only by increase in their concentration but also because of their enhanced mobility due to increased inter-chain transport in polyaniline at high doping levels. EPR line asymmetry having Dysonian line shape for highly doped samples shows a marked deviation of amplitudes A/B ratio from values close to one to much high values as usually observed in metals, thereby support the idea of high conductivity at higher doping levels. The nature of dopant ions and their doping levels control the charge carriers concentration as well as electrical conductivity of polyaniline. The electrical conductivity has also been studied as a function of temperature to know the thermally assisted transport process of these charge carriers at different doping levels which has been found to follow the Mott's variable range hopping (VRH) conduction model for all the three dopants used. The charge carriers show a change over from 3D VRH to quasi 1D VRH hopping process for multivalent ions at higher doping levels whereas 1D VRH has been followed by monovalent ion for full doping range. These studies collectively give evidence of inter-chain percolation at higher doping levels causing increase in effective mobility of the charge carriers which mainly seems to govern the electrical conduction behaviour in this system.

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Vibrational spectra of insulator emeraldine base (EB) form of polyaniline and electrical conductive sulfuric acid- and phosphoric acid-doped emeraldine salts (ES) were studied in the region of 4000-400 cm(-1) at ambient temperature by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Infrared transmittance spectra of EB and ES were investigated to understand the bonding behavior of different organic and inorganic groups present in the polymeric chains and their structural variations on protonation by sulfate or phosphate ion inclusion in the polymer salt network. These studies revealed the para-coupling of deformed disubstituted benzenoid (B) and quinoid (Q) rings with ends capped predominantly by (B4Q1) units. The deformation of B and Q rings was confirmed by the appearance of many weak bands, very weak bands, and satellite structures in strong transmittance peaks of polymeric chain-constituting groups. Protonation takes place at the nitrogen sites of Q rings and forms semiquinone radical ions in ES. The vibrational bands pertaining to B rings, Q rings, B4Q1 units, semiquinone segment, sulfate ions, and phosphate ions were observed and assigned from these measurements. The shift in peak position of some bands with gain or loss in intensity and appearance of some new bands were observed in sulfuric acid- and phosphoric acid-doped ES spectra. These variations are attributed to the formation of new structural groups in ES on protonation and a change in crystalline field by sulfate and phosphate ion doping for crosslinking the polymeric chains.

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