Heterogeneous Preparation of Polyaniline-Cellulose Conductive Composites with Cellulose Pretreated by Ultrasonic and its Electrical Properties

A series of conductive composites polyaniline(PANI)-cellulose were heterogeneously synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline with native cellulose pretreated by ultrasonic. The morphology and chemical structure of the composites were examined by SEM and FTIR. TGA was used to study their thermal properties. The electrical conductivity was measured at room temperature by the standard four-probe method. For the sake of illuminating the influence of ultrasonic pretreatment on the structure and properties of PANI-cellulose composites, the SEM microphotographs, FTIR spectrum and TG curve of the PANI-cellulose composites prepared with native cellulose without any treatment were also shown in this paper to serve as reference. The PANI content and electrical conductivity of these two composites were also compared. It was found that cellulose surface was severely eroded by ultrasonic wave, and PANI homogeneously dispersed on this eroded cellulose surface in the form of particles. In reverse, the PANI particles loaded on the surface of untreated cellulose with evident aggregation. The homogeneous dispersion of PANI particles would be favor for the improvement of the electrical conductivity of the composites. From the FTIR spectra, it was verified that there was no difference between these two composites. It indicated that ultrasonic force did not lead to the variation of the chemical structure of cellulose. TG curves revealed that the thermal stability of PANI-cellulose composites was obviously enhanced than pure cellulose due to the protection of PANI particles deposited on its surface. Nevertheless, ultrasonic has a negative effect on the thermal stability of the composites, which resulted in the long cellulose molecular chains change into shorter ones, so the decomposition of composite occurred at lower temperature. It was because that ultrasonic pretreatment contributed to the homogeneous dispersion of PANI and more PANI particle depositing on the cellulose surface. Therefore, the PANI-cellulose composites with ultrasonic pretreated cellulose have more PANI content and higher electrical conductivity than the composites with untreated cellulose. Moreover, the difference of these two factors between the two composites became more and more marked with increasing of the amount of aniline. When aniline used was up to 0.5 g, the PANI content in the former was 48.2% more than the latter. This work provided a facile method for the synthesis of PANI-cellulose conductive composites with excellent conductivity.