Electrochemical polymerization of aniline using natural rubber-coated platinum electrode

Abstract

The electrochemical polymerization of aniline from aqueous solutions of 1 M H2SO4 using natural rubber (NR)-coated platinum electrode was performed by cyclic voltammetry. The optimal thickness of NR coating was made as thin as 20 µm in order to obtain free-standing, highly flexible thin films. The heterogeneous polymerization of newly synthesized composite material from aniline was analyzed using the obtained cyclic voltammogram. During the repetitive cyclic voltammetry scans the presence of NR inhibits the polymer-related oxidation process and diminishes the degradation products in the composite materials. The morphological and structural analysis confirmed the effective formation of polyaniline (PANI)-NR composite. The impedance measurements revealed that electrical properties of the composite sample get comparable with doped PANI and further enhanced with temperature and frequency of the applied signal.