Chemical Oxidative Polymerization of Polyaniline: A Practical Approach for Preparation of Smart Conductive Textiles

Electrically conducting polymers are one of the promising alternative materials for technological applications in many interdisciplinary areas, including chemistry, material sciences, and engineering. This experiment was designed for providing undergraduate students with a quick and practical approach for preparation of a polyaniline-conducting polymer, demonstrating its application as a conductive coating for fabrication of smart, flexible, conductive textiles. Polyaniline was prepared by chemical oxidative polymerization (COP) of aniline monomer using ammonium persulfate as redox initiator. The polymerization was characterized by color change during the slow induction period, followed by sudden heat release during the polymerization stage due to the autoacceleration nature of this exothermic reaction. This polymerization system was used to demonstrate the heterogeneous precipitation polymerization technique. As a demonstration for the practical application of polyaniline in the area of smart conductive textiles, different nonconductive textile samples were coated with polyaniline by in situ COP and used as electronic textiles for operation of capacitive touch-screen displays.