Structural investigation of polyaniline/Nylon 6 blends by small-angle neutron scattering and small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering

✍ Scribed by B. K. Annis; G. D. Wignall; Alan R. Hopkins; Paul G. Rasmussen; Rafil A. Basheer

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 217 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-6266
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0488(199712)35:17<2765::aid-polb1>3.0.co;2-q

✦ Synopsis

The structure of blends of Nylon 6 with deuterated polyaniline emeraldine base (D-PANI-EB) and fully doped D-PANI salts (D-PANI-ES) formed from camphorsulfonic acid (CSA), methanesulfonic acid (MSA), or dodecyl benzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) were investigated by small-angle neutron (SANS) and X-ray scattering. The blends were formed from hexafluoro-2-propanol solutions and had volume fractions of 0.038, 0.20, and 0.40 for D-PANI/CSA, 0.20 and 0.40 for D-PANI/MSA, 0.24 and 0.44 for D-PANI/DBSA, and 0.07, 0.14, and 0.31 for D-PANI-EB. The SANS results are compared with a number of standard models for two-phase systems. No evidence was found for significant molecular mixing. In some cases the inverse power law model is in reasonable agreement with observations, and in the case of the lowest concentration of D-PANI/CSA there is an indication of mass fractal structure. This was not found at the higher concentrations. The results establish that the blends with the smaller more polar dopants CSA and MSA behave similarly and are unlike either the D-PANI/DBSA blends or those with D-PANI-EB. There is evidence that the simple picture of two pure phases is inadequate for these materials. With the exception of the D-PANI/DBSA blend which has a relatively low scattering contrast, the results indicate that the lower limit of volume fraction for application of SANS is a few percent D-PANI-ES in Nylon 6. X-ray scattering was used to demonstrate the presence of Nylon 6 lamellae and residual peaks attributable to the pure components.