Effect of Preparation Conditions on the Conductivity of Polyaniline Impregnated Polyacrylate Conducting Hydrogel

Abstract

The superabsorbent polymers (SAP) based electrically conducting hydrogel such as polyaniline (PANI) impregnated polyacrylate (PAANa) hydrogel was synthesized via two-steps interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) process. This work deals with the optimization of preparation conditions (such as concentration of crosslinker, aniline monomer, and initiator) for PANI impregnated PAANa conducting hydrogel preparation with improved conductivity. The microstructural characterization of the synthesized conducting hydrogel was carried out using Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The detailed study of PAANa/PANI hydrogel behavior with HCl dopant showed good conductivity, thermal stability, and pH sensitive swelling behavior in comparison to other dopants used. On the optimization of synthesis conditions, the conducting hydrogel has shown good conductivity in order of 3.71 mS/cm and the electrical conductivity of hydrogel samples is also found higher than their corresponding filtrate.