Synthesis and Spectroscopic Studies of DGEBA–Grafted Polyaniline

Abstract

N-grafted polyaniline with diglycidyl ether bisphenol A (DGEBA) was synthesized via anionic copolymerization technique. Metalation reaction was performed to cause grafting to occur between DGEBA with emeraldine salt polyaniline (PANI-ES) and leucoemeraldine base polyaniline (PANI-LEB), respectively. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), ¹³C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and ¹H-NMR spectroscopies and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were performed to characterize the PANI-EB-g-DGEBA and PANI-ES-g-DGEBA copolymers. The gel content of the resultant copolymers was determined by Soxhlet extraction. Results of spectroscopic studies showed that grafting took place together with the side reaction, cross-linking, and DGEBA homopolymerization. Oxidation states of PANI were found to influence the gel content and molecular weight distribution of copolymers produced.

Keywords:

• Anionic copolymerization
• DGEBA
• Grafting
• Polyaniline

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Malaysia (MOSTI) under the IRPA 03-02-01-0124 PR 001 grant.