Facile synthesis and characterization of the copolymers and their pure nanoparticles from aniline with 4‐sulfonic diphenylamine

Copolymer nanoparticles from aniline (AN) and 4‐sulfonic diphenylamine (SDP) were simply synthesized for the first time by an oxidative precipitation polymerization with inorganic oxidants in an acidic aqueous medium without any external emulsifier or stabilizer. The polymerization yield, intrinsic viscosity, solubility, solvatochromism, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability of the copolymers were systematically studied through changes in the AN/SDP ratio, polymerization temperature, oxidant species, monomer/oxidant ratio, and acidic medium. The molecular structure of the copolymers was characterized with elemental analysis, IR, and ultraviolet–visible spectra. The polymers exhibited very good solubility in polar solvents, water, and NH₄OH, and this was mainly attributable to the presence of sulfonic acid side groups. The electrical conductivity of the copolymers increased greatly, from 6.00 × 10^?4 to 2.55 × 10^?1 S/cm, with increasing AN content. The size of the copolymer particles, determined by laser particle analysis and atomic force microscopy (AFM), strongly depended on the polymer state and oxidant/monomer ratio. Pure dedoped particles of the AN/SDP (50/50) copolymer at an oxidant/monomer ratio of 1/2 exhibited minimum length/diameter ratios of 62/44 and 45/30 nm by AFM and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The copolymers showed typical four‐step weight‐loss behavior in nitrogen and air and higher thermostability in nitrogen. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 3380–3394, 2004     

Synthesis of electroconducting narrowly distributed nanoparticles and nanocomposite films of orthanilic acid/aniline copolymers

A unique strategy for synthesis of narrowly distributed and inherently self-stabilized copolymer nanoparticles by a simple emulsifier-free polymerization from orthanilic acid and aniline was developed. The polymerization yield, electrical conductivity, size, and its distribution of the nanoparticles could be simultaneously optimized by facilely regulating the comonomer ratio, oxidant/comonomer ratio, polymerization temperature, and time. In particular, the nanoparticles evermore exhibit a size polydispersity index down to 1.066 and strong redispersibility in water or polymer solutions. This facile synthesis of functional nanoparticles using orthanilic acid as vital comonomer readily affords yields up to 80%. A low percolation threshold of the nanoparticles/cellulose diacetate and poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite films was found to be 0.18 and 0.07 wt %, respectively. This study opens a simple and general route for fabrication of nanostructured polymer materials with controllable size, narrow size distribution, intrinsic self-stability, strong dispersibility, high purity, and regulable electroconductivity.     

Facile synthesis and intrinsic conductivity of novel pyrrole copolymer nanoparticles with inherent self-stability

Intrinsically self-stabilized nanoparticles of a copolymer from 4-sulfonic diphenylamine (SD) and pyrrole (PY) were facilely synthesized in HCl solution at 10 degrees C by a chemically oxidative polymerization. The critical reaction parameters such as SD/PY ratio, polymerization time, and oxidant species were studied to significantly optimize the polymerization yield, size, conductivity, and solubility of the final copolymer particles. The molecular structure, size, size distribution, and morphology of the particles were analyzed by IR spectroscopy, laser particle-size analysis (LPA), atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that the polymerization yield of the SD/PY (50/50) copolymers increased dramatically in the initial 2 h of polymerization and then slowly enlarged in the subsequent 22 h. However, the copolymerization yield for the polymerization time of 24 h exhibited a nonlinear dependence on the SD/PY molar ratio, i.e., a maximum at 10/90 and a minimum at 80/20. The number-average diameter, Dn, of the copolymer particles strongly depended on the SD/PY ratio, decreasing rapidly from 6402 to 291 nm as the SD/PY molar ratio changed from 30/70 to 50/50, whereas the polydispersity index, PDI = Dw/Dn (where Dw is the weight-average diameter), surprisingly maintained very small values, decreasing slightly from 1.21 to 1.08. The SD/PY (80/20) copolymer particles prepared with (NH4)2S2O8 as the oxidant had the smallest size of ca. 10 nm by TEM and the lowest Dw/Dn value of 1.03 by LPA, whereas the copolymer particles prepared with FeCl3 as the oxidant exhibited the second smallest size of ca. 20 nm by TEM and the highest conductivity. The conductivity of the SD/PY (50/50) copolymers rose first and then decreased with increasing polymerization time from 10 min to 24 h, exhibiting a maximum (0.217 S/cm) at 12 h. It is of interest that the copolymer particles with SD/PY molar ratios in the range between 50/50 and 80/20 surprisingly exhibited the smallest size, the narrowest size distribution, and the highest conductivity at the same time. In particular, the copolymer nanoparticles exhibited high purity, clean surfaces, good self-stability, high conductivity, and strong chemoresistance that were very important to nanomaterial processibility and application. The obtained copolymers were partially soluble in concentrated H2SO4, demonstrating a new direction for synthesizing a soluble pyrrole copolymer.     

Synthesis and properties of processable conducting copolymers from N‐ethylaniline with aniline

Copolymers were synthesized through the chemically oxidative polymerization of N‐ethylaniline (EA) and aniline (AN) in five acid aqueous media. The polymerization yield, intrinsic viscosity, molecular weight, solubility, solvatochromism, electrical conductivity, and mechanical properties of the copolymer films were systematically studied through changes in the comonomer ratio, polymerization temperature, oxidant, oxidant/monomer ratio, and acid medium. Open‐circuit‐potential and temperature measurements of the polymerization solutions showed that the polymerization rate depended on the EA content, and the polymerization was an exothermic reaction. The resultant copolymers were characterized in detail with IR, ultraviolet–visible, and ¹H NMR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, wide‐angle X‐ray diffractometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The reactivity ratios of the monomer pair were calculated from the ¹H NMR spectra of the copolymers formed at a low conversion. The polymers exhibited good solubility and interesting solvatochromism in most of the solvents and variable conductivity with the EA/AN ratio and doping state. The conductivity of the HCl‐doped copolymers increased monotonically from 5.61 × 10^?7 to 2.55 × 10^?1 S/cm with decreasing EA content from 100 to 0 mol % and showed a percolation transition between EA concentrations of 20 and 30 mol %. The EA/AN copolymers also had excellent film formability and flexibility together with high mechanical and oxygen‐enriching properties. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 6109–6124, 2004     

Facile preparation and characterization of copolymer nanoparticles from pyrrole and aniline-2-sulfonic acid

Novel poly(pyrrole-co-aniline-2-sulfonic acid) (PPYAS) nanoparticles were prepared via chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrrole and aniline-2-sulfonic acid in different aqueous solutions without any external additives. The morphology, structure and electroconductivity of the HCl-doped particles were studied by changing the molar ratio of the oxidant and monomers, and the solvent for polymerization. It was found that the yield, mean diameter and electrical conductivity of the resulting particles varied strongly with the molar ratio of the components. The nanoparticles exhibit a minimum mean diameter of around 62 nm, and good self-stability because of the introduction of sulfo groups into the chains of the copolymer. The preparation affords yield of up to 85%, and the HCl-doped copolymer salts possess an electroconductivity between 0.68 and 0.2 S/cm, depending on the fraction of anilinesulfonic acid.     

Bulk synthesis, optimization, and characterization of highly dispersible polypyrrole nanoparticles toward protein separation using nanocomposite membranes

A novel initiator-assisted polymerization is used for bulk synthesis of polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles by adding a catalytic amount of initiator 2,4-diaminodiphenylamine into pyrrole solution. Through simply modulating reaction parameters such as initiator concentrations, oxidant species, oxidant/monomer molar ratios and acidic media utilized, the chemical structure, nanomorphology, product yield, dispersibility, thermal stability, electrochemical activity, and conductivity of PPy nanoparticles are facilely optimized. The initiator copolymerized with pyrrole in the initial stages of polymerization, acting like bipyrrole and helping to nucleate the PPy main chains. The stronger oxidants and higher oxidant/monomer molar ratios used lead to PPy nanoparticles with higher π-π conjugation. Sphere-like PPy nanoparticles with average diameters of 80-300nm show yield and conductivity with values up 73.5% and 10(-2)S/cm, respectively, and are readily dispersible in both water and N-methylpyrrolidone. The PPy nanoparticles are used as effective precursors for fabricating carbon nanoparticles with conductivity of 3.7S/cm. Nanocomposite membranes consisting of PPy nanoparticles and polysulfone matrix are fabricated by a phase-inversion technique and demonstrate much improved hydrophilicity, water permeability, and bovine serum albumin selectivity against pure polysulfone membranes.     

Synthesis and heavy-metal-ion sorption of pure sulfophenylenediamine copolymer nanoparticles with intrinsic conductivity and stability

Novel copolymer nanoparticles were easily synthesized with a polymerization yield of 59.3 % by an oxidative precipitation polymerization of aniline (AN) and m-sulfophenylenediamine (SP) in HCl without any external stabilizer. The polymerization yield, size, morphology, electroconductivity, solubility, solvatochromism, lead and mercury ion adsorbability of the HCl-doped copolymer salt particles were studied by changing the AN/SP ratio. The AN/SP (80:20) copolymer particles are found to have the minimal number-average diameter(84.4 nm), minimal size polydispersity index (1.149), high stability, good long-term stability, powerful redispersibility in water, high purity, and clean surface because of a complete elimination of the contamination from external stabilizer. The copolymer salts possess a remarkably enhanced solubility, interesting solvatochromism, and widely adjustable electroconductivity moving across nine orders of magnitudes from 10(-9) to 10(0) S cm(-1). The AN/SP (70:30) copolymer particles have the highest Hg2+ adsorbance and adsorptivity of 497.7 mg g(-1) and 98.8 %, respectively, which are much higher values than those of other materials. The sorption mechanism of lead and mercury ions on the particles is proposed. The copolymer bases with 5-10 mol % SP unit show excellent film formability, flexibility, and smooth appearance. The copolymer should be very useful in the fabrication of cost-effective conductive nanocomposite with low percolation threshold and in removal of toxic metallic ions from waste water.     

Optimization of polymerization conditions of furan with aniline for variable conducting polymers

A high-throughput multiparameter optimization of chemical oxidative polymerization conditions has been developed for a facile synthesis of furan homopolymers and furan/aniline copolymers using a combinatorial method. The polymerization yield, molecular structure, and properties of the polymers would be optimized against typical polymerization parameters, including oxidant species, medium species, temperature, oxidant/monomer ratio, monomer concentration, dopant concentration, and furan/aniline comonomer ratio. The electrical conductivity, lead ion adsorptivity, chemical resistance, and thermal behavior of the polymers were also elaborated. It is found that only a combination of FeCl(3) and nitromethane as oxidant and medium, respectively, is appropriate for the furan homopolymerization. The homopolymerization yield increases consistently with an increase in the monomer concentration from 0.05 to 0.2 M and the FeCl(3)/furan molar ratio from 0.25 to 1.25. Although the as-prepared polyfuran exhibits very low conductivity, down to 10(-11) S cm(-1), the HCl- and HClO(4)-doped polyfurans possess much higher conductivities of 9.2 x 10(-8) and 2.38 x 10(-5) S cm(-1), respectively. In addition, the conductivity of the furan/aniline copolymer rises steadily with increasing aniline content, although the copolymerization yield shows a minimum at the furan/aniline molar ratio of 60/40, which is evidence of the occurrence of a real copolymerization between the furan and aniline monomers. The difficulty of synthesizing conducting polyfuran could be overcome to some extent by the polymerization in an appropriate condition optimized in this study. Particularly, the difficulty of synthesizing poly(furan-co-aniline) having much higher conductivity than the polyfuran would be largely conquered by chemical oxidative copolymerization of furan with aniline.     

Polymerization and characterization of novel poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐styrene/pyrrole) nanoparticles: A comparison between microwave and conventional method

In this study, poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐styrene/pyrrole) or poly(AN‐co‐ST/Py) copolymer was successfully synthesized using microwave preparation technique, and its comparison with the conventional heating method is investigated. Different polymerization factors affecting on the preparation conditions and conversion yield such as monomer concentration, comonomers ratio, initiator concentration, cosolvent ratio, cosolvent type, polymerization temperature, and polymerization time have a considerable effect on the conversion yield %, functional groups, and molecular weight. The copolymerization process was approved by Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, ¹H NMR spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography. The formation of poly(AN‐co‐ST/Py) nanoparticles was confirmed by SEM, and their possible formation mechanisms were also proposed. The SEM images of poly(AN‐co‐ST/Py) prepared by the microwave method showed that the synthesized copolymer had spikes or rods with spherical structure of the produced copolymers than the poly(AN‐co‐ST/Py) nanoparticles prepared by the conventional heating method. Microwave method showed advantages for the produced copolymers compared to that prepared by conventional method, where it can offer a copolymer in short time, high yield, and more thermally stable copolymers, rather than conventional method.     

Core-shell emulsion copolymerization of styrene and acrylonitrile on polystyrene seed particles

Seeded emulsion copolymerization of an azeotropic composition of styrene (St) and an acrylinitrile (AN) comonomer mixture in polystyrene (PS) seed at different polymerization temperature of 55–75°C were investigated. The kinetic data showed a transition temperature at 65°C, above which the activation energy of polymerization is low, 6.1 Kcal/mol, compared with 9.8 Kcal/mol below it. The particle-size results and thin layer chromatographic (TLC) data showed two types of particle of different composition and morphology in the final latex system: a smaller size of (St–AN) copolymer and a larger size of core-PS and (St–AN) copolymer shell, with a zone of PS grafted (St–AN) copolymer in between. Various polymerization parameters, that is emulsifier concentration, type of seed particle and its size, and monomer/polymer ratio, were studied and their effects on particle size and particle morphology were examined. The percent of grafted core-PS was 10% below a polymerization temperature of 65°C and 40% above that temperature. By adjusting the size and number of the seed particles, monomer-polymer ratio, and emulsifier concentration conditions were established in which a final copolymer latex with “perfect” core-shell morphology was achieved.     

Oxidative copolymerization of 2‐pyridylamine and aniline

A series of copolymers were easily synthesized via the chemical oxidative polymerization of 2‐pyridylamine (2PA) and aniline (AN) in an acidic aqueous medium. The yield, intrinsic viscosity, and solubility of the copolymers were studied through changes in the 2PA/AN molar ratio, polymerization temperature, oxidant, oxidant/monomer molar ratio, and polymerization medium. The resulting 2PA/AN copolymers were characterized by ¹H NMR, Fourier transform infrared, wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric techniques. The results showed that the oxidative copolymerization from 2PA and AN was exothermic. The resultant copolymers were amorphous and exhibited enhanced solubility in comparison with polyaniline. The 2PA/AN copolymers showed the highest decomposition temperature (530 °C), the slowest maximum‐weight‐loss rate (1.2 %/min), the largest char yield (45 wt %), and the greatest degradation activation energy (65 kJ/mol) in nitrogen. The thermostability of the copolymers was generally higher in nitrogen than in air. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 4407–4418, 2000     

AN/St悬浮共聚体系中AN在水/油两相间分配及其对共聚物组成的影响

研究了丙烯腈/苯乙烯(AN/St)悬浮共聚体系中AN在水/油两相间的分配及其对AN/St共聚物组成的影响.结果表明,AN分配于水/油两相间,使油相AN的含量低于相同单体配料比的本体聚合,导致生成的AN/St共聚物组成偏离本体共聚.为了准确预测进而控制AN/St悬浮共聚物的组成,提出了在考虑AN相分配的基础上计算AN/St悬浮共聚物组成的模型.计算结果与实验值一致,计算中用到的油相实际竞聚率与本体聚合相同,但该悬浮聚合的表观竞聚率随水/油比的变化而发生较大改变.     

Simple synthesis of aminoquinoline/ethylaniline copolymer semiconducting nanoparticles

Pure copolymer nanoparticles from 8-aminoquinoline (AQ) and 2-ethylaniline (EA) were easily synthesized by a chemically oxidative polymerization in three different aqueous media. The potential and temperature of polymerization solution were used to successfully follow the polymerization progress. The molecular and morphological structures of the resulting AQ/EA copolymer particles were systematically characterized by IR, UV/Vis, NMR, gel permeation chromatography, laser particle-size analysis, atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. The oxidation potential of the monomers as well as the polymerization yield, structure, and properties of the particles were found to significantly depend on AQ/EA ratio, polymerization temperature and medium. It is surprisingly found that AQ homopolymerization and AQ/EA (50:50) copolymerization at 5 degrees C in HCl simply afford nano-ellipsoids with the major/minor axis diameters of 24/14 nm and 80/67 nm, respectively. A simple method of synthesizing semiconducting pure nanoparticles by introducing the AQ units with positively charged quaternary ammonium groups but in the absence of adscititious stabilizer or sulfonic substituent on the monomers is established first. Both the molecular weight and bulk electroconductivity of the copolymers exhibit a maximum at AQ content of 10 mol %. The solubility and film formability of the copolymers are good in highly polar solvents and reach the optimal at the AQ content of 20 and 10 mol %, respectively.     

Design of New Reaction Fields for Spherical Polypyrrole Particle Synthesis

Summary: Polypyrrole conducting polymers have been investigated widely for various applications because of their thermal and environmental stability and good electrical conductivity. Using chemical oxidative polymerization for the synthesis of polypyrrole particles, the reaction rate is very fast. In this study, we designed two new reaction fields for the synthesis of spherical polypyrrole nanoparticles. In the first system, oxidative polymerization of monomer droplets infused in a water/oil (W/O) emulsion reaction field was investigated. The second system employed dispersed monomer in an aqueous solution with a low concentration of oxidant in which polymerization was augmented by ultrasonic irradiation. Effective control of the reaction rate was important for enabling the synthesis of fine spherical polypyrrole particles.     

Synthesis of highly conductive EDOT copolymer films via oxidative chemical in situ polymerization

Poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)s (PEDOT) represent a class of conjugated polymers that can be potentially used as an electrode material for flexible organic electronics due to their superior conductivity and transparency. In this study, we demonstrate that the conductivity of a PEDOT containing copolymer film can be further enhanced by the oxidative chemical in situ copolymerization of a liquid film spun coated from monomer mixture (3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and 3‐thienyl ethoxybutanesulfonate (TEBS)), oxidant (iron(III) p‐toluenesulfonate (Fe(OTs)₃)), weak base (imidazole), and solvent (methanol). We investigated that the effect of the processing parameters such as the molar ratios TEBS/EDOT, IM/EDOT, and Fe(OTs)₃/EDOT on the surface morphology, optical property, and the conductivity of the resulting copolymer films. These parameters have been optimized to achieve conductivities for the copolymer films as high as 170 S/cm compared with a conductivity of 30 S/cm for the pure PEDOT film synthesized using the same fabrication method. This conductivity enhancement for the copolymer films was found to be resulted from the fact that the addition of TEBS monomer reduces the copolymerization rate, leading to the formation of much more uniform film surface without defects and copolymers of higher molecular weight which increase the conductivity of the resulting copolymer film. The composition of two monomers in the copolymer film is not related to the variation of conductivity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 1662–1673, 2008     

Organic solvent‐free catalytic hydrogenation of diene‐based polymer nanoparticles in latex form: Part I. Preparation of nano‐substrate

Poly(butadiene‐co‐acrylonitrile) (NBR) nanoparticles were synthesized in a semibatch emulsion polymerization system using Gemini surfactant trimethylene‐1,3‐bis (dodecyldimethylammonium bromide), referred to as Gemini‐type surfactant (GS) 12‐3‐12, as the emulsifier. In this polymerization system, an enhanced decomposition rate of initiator ammonium persulfate was achieved even under the low temperature of 50 °C which is attributed to the acidic initiation environment provided using GS 12‐3‐12. The microstructure and copolymer composition of the polymer nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier‐transformed infrared and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The effects of the surfactant concentration on the particle size, zeta potential, polymerization conversion, copolymer composition, molecular weight, and glass transition temperature (T_g) were investigated. It was found that the particle diameter can be controlled by the surfactant concentration and monomer/water ratio and particle sizes below 20 nm can be reached. The obtained latex particles exhibit a spherical morphology. A kinetic study of the copolymerization reaction was carried out, which indicated that an azeotropic composition was produced. The synthesized fine NBR nanoparticles can be employed as the nano substrate for a subsequent hydrogenation process so as to overcome the challenge involved in the field of latex hydrogenation of polymers, which can be found in a related report: Organic Solvent‐Free Catalytic Hydrogenation of Diene‐based Polymer Nanoparticles in Latex Form: Part II. Kinetic Analysis and Mechanistic Study. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

An investigation into the relationship between the electrical conductivity and particle size of polyaniline in nano scale

Polyaniline nanoparticle (nPANI) was successfully synthesized through ultrasonic-assisted reverse microemulsion polymerization method. The effect of four parameters including concentration of aniline (ANI) as monomer, molar ratio of dodecybenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) as surfactant to ANI, molar ratio of ammonium peroxydisulfate (APS) as oxidant to ANI and polymerization temperaturewere systematically studied in terms of the structural characterizations of nPANI by applying the Taguchi method of experimental design. Data analysis indicated that there is a dependency between conductivity and particle size in the nanoscale; the maximum conductivity of nPANI was obtained when the diameter of the particles was 30?nm.     

Productive synthesis and properties of polydiaminoanthraquinone and its pure self-stabilized nanoparticles with widely adjustable electroconductivity

Wholly aromatic poly(1,5-diaminoanthraquinone) (PDAA) particles were productively synthesized for the first time by chemically oxidative polymerization of 1,5-diaminoanthraquinone (DAA) by using CrO3, K2Cr2O7, K2CrO4, or KMnO4 as oxidants in acidic DMF. The effects of the oxidant species, oxidant/DAA ratio, polymerization temperature, and medium on the polymerization yield, macromolecular structure, size, electroconductivity, solubility, solvatochromism, thermostability, photoluminescence, and silver-ion sorption of the PDAA particles were systematically studied by IR, UV/Vis, fluorescence, and solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopies, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopies, and laser particle-size, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermal gravimetric (TG) analyses. It seems that the DAA is oxidatively polymerized at the 1,4- and 5,8-positions. Surprisingly, the chemical oxidative polymerization of DAA with CrO3 at 0 degrees C in H2SO4/DMF in the absence of external stabilizer simply affords novel PDAA nanoparticles of around 30 nm in diameter with high purity, clean surfaces, inherent semiconductivity, and self-stability that can be ascribed to the presence of a large number of 1,4-benzoquinone units that are negatively charged on their macromolecular chains. The polymers exhibit a high thermal stability at temperatures below 400 degrees C. Two unique nanoeffects were found, namely the strongest silver-ion adsorbability and photoluminescence of the PDAA nanoparticles. This gives a facile and general route for the application of the versatilities of PDAA nanomaterials. The PDAA particles are good semiconductors with a widely adjustable conductivity that moves across seven orders of magnitude through simple HClO4 redoping or Ag+ sorption, as expected.     

Facile high-yield synthesis of polyaniline nanosticks with intrinsic stability and electrical conductivity

Chemical oxidative polymerization at 15 degrees C was used for the simple and productive synthesis of polyaniline (PAN) nanosticks. The effect of polymerization media on the yield, size, stability, and electrical conductivity of the PAN nanosticks was studied by changing the concentration and nature of the acid medium and oxidant and by introducing organic solvent. Molecular and supramolecular structure, size, and size distribution of the PAN nanosticks were characterized by UV/Vis and IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, laser particle-size analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. Introduction of organic solvent is advantageous for enhancing the yield of PAN nanosticks but disadvantageous for formation of PAN nanosticks with small size and high conductivity. The concentration and nature of the acid medium have a major influence on the polymerization yield and conductivity of the nanosized PAN. The average diameter and length of PAN nanosticks produced with 2 M HNO(3) and 0.5 M H(2)SO(4) as acid media are about 40 and 300 nm, respectively. The PAN nanosticks obtained in an optimal medium (i.e., 2 M HNO(3)) exhibit the highest conductivity of 2.23 S cm(-1) and the highest yield of 80.7 %. A mechanism of formation of nanosticks instead of nanoparticles is proposed. Nanocomposite films of the PAN nanosticks with poly(vinyl alcohol) show a low percolation threshold of 0.2 wt %, at which the film retains almost the same transparency and strength as pure poly(vinyl alcohol) but 262 000 times the conductivity of pure poly(vinyl alcohol) film. The present synthesis of PAN nanosticks requires no external stabilizer and provides a facile and direct route for fabrication of PAN nanosticks with high yield, controllable size, intrinsic self-stability, strong redispersibility, high purity, and optimizable conductivity.     

An experimental study on saturation swelling of styrene–acryronitrile copolymer particles with styrene and acrylonitrile monomers

The saturation swelling behavior of styrene and acrylonitrile (SAN) copolymer particles with a styrene (St) and acrylonitrile (AN) comonomer mixture was investigated experimentally. The effects of the copolymer composition and the compositional inhomogeneity in SAN Copolymer particles on their swelling behavior were examined. The experimental results show that both the copolymer composition and the compositional inhomogeneity in SAN copolymer particles have little or no influence on the swellability of SAN copolymer particles with a St and AN comonomer mixture, as long as the weight fraction of AN monomer units in SAN copolymer particles is less than a certain value between 0.6 and 0.8. With increasing AN content in the copolymer particles beyond this value, however, the swellability of SAN copolymer particles gradually decreases. Semiempirical equations are proposed, which correlate the saturation concentration of each monomer in SAN copolymer particles as a function of the comonomer composition in the monomer droplets and the overall copolymer composition in SAN copolymer particles. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.