ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF THERMALLY DEGRADED POLY(VINYL CHLORIDE)-POLYACRYLONITRILE BLENDS

Finely powdered blends of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) have been thermally degraded at 275 degrees C for 24 h in an inert atmosphere to effect complete dehydrochlorination of PVC to a conjugated polyene structure and simultaneous internal polymerization of nitrile groups in PAN to a conjugated polyimine sequence. The room temperature d.c. conductivity of the degraded blends showed clear synergistic behavior. A maximum conductivity has been observed with a blend of 60 PAN/40 PVC which is about 4 orders of magnitude over the linearly weighted average conductivity of the individual degraded homopolymers. The results have been interpreted in terms of a possible donor-acceptor interaction between the degraded homopolymers leading to mutual doping and, hence, an enhanced electrical conductivity. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.