Enhanced electrical conductivity and competent mechanical properties of polyaniline/polyacrylate (PANI/PA) composites for antistatic finishing prepared at the aid of polymeric stabilizer

The conductive polyaniline/polyacrylate (PANI/PA) composite emulsions were prepared by chemical polymerization of aniline in polyacrylate emulsion at the aid of poly(maleic anhydride-co-acrylic acid-co-sodium p-styrenesulfonate) (MAS) as a stabilizer. The stability of PANI/PA composite emulsions and the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the corresponding films were investigated. The incorporation of MAS greatly improved the stability of PANI/PA composite emulsion, and the PANI was uniformly dispersed in the corresponding composite films. The composite films exhibited excellent electrical conductivity and competent mechanical properties compared with PA. It was found that the volume resistivity of PANI/PA composite film containing only 20 wt% PANI with 12 wt% of MAS achieved to 9.9 Omega cm, which was close to the pristine PANI. Simultaneously, the corresponding tensile strength increased more than three times compared with neat PA, and the breaking elongation slightly decrease. The results indicated that the enhancement of electrically conductive and mechanical properties for PANI/PA composite films with the addition of MAS was due to the formation of continuously connective conductive network and stronger electrostatic crosslinking effect of PANI with MAS. The results from antistatic finishing of PET fabric suggested that this conductive PANI/PA composite emulsion had potential commercial applications for antistatic finishing of fabrics and developing functional textiles.