Optical and electrical conductivity investigations of Fe3+-(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) terpolymer complex systems

Abstract

Infrared (IR) and UV-spectra have been obtained for pure and Fe3+ doped acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) terpolymer. IR study revealed the appearance of a new band at about 380 cm−1, and a change of the shape and the intensity of the band at 1450–1500 cm−1 and 2240 cm−1 indicates the structural change on blending due to the τ-complexes and the complexes of the functional groups with Fe3+ forming an ion-coordination polymer. The UV spectrum confirms this result. The optical energy for pure and Fe3+-doped ABS is found to be 3.75 eV and 3.55 eV, respectively. The dc and ac electrical conductivities have been investigated. The apparent conductivity of high Fe3+-doped ABS at the ambient temperature is about six orders of magnitude greater than that of the undoped film. The activation energy drastically decreases as the wt. % of FeCl3 increases. The enhanced conductivity in the complex film may be attributed to the capacity of the dopant to give additional charge carriers. Transport of charge carriers will occur by hopping of charge carriers between close neighbors across the intervening dielectric, probably via a thermally activated process.