Chemical, Electrochemical and Plasma Polymerization of Pyrrole-Aniline Copolymers and Their Characterization

Pyrrole-aniline copolymers (poly(Py-co-Ani)) were synthesized using both three chemical, electrochemical and plasma polymerization methods. Comparison of the copolymers synthesized with three methods was investigated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravymetric analysis (TG-DTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and conductivity results confirmed that the poly(Py-co-Ani) copolymers were successfully obtained in all cases with some differences according to synthesis methods. It was found that plasma method enhanced the thermal stability of the poly(Py-co-Ani) copolymer. The first thermal decomposition temperatures of chemically, electrochemically and plasma polymerized copolymers are 210, 190 and 250 °C, respectively. However, the conductivity value of plasma polymerized copolymer (1,97x10-4 S.cm-1) is lower than that of chemical (4,40x10-4 S.cm-1) and electrochemical (3,14x10-4 S.cm-1) synthesized copolymers. According to findings chemical and electrochemical polymerization methods provides nearly the same properties to the copolymers. Plasma polymerization method provides better thermal properties to copolymer. The both three methods can be used for preparing the pyrrole and aniline copolymers.