Functionalized Polyaniline as a Novel Curing Agent For Epoxy Resin

Abstract

The aim of this project was to functionalize the backbone of polyaniline with amine based nucleophiles to act as a curing agent for epoxy resins. Much work has been done on the use of polyaniline and other intrinsic conducting polymers as functional fillers in composite systems for applications such as corrosion prevention and electromagnetic shielding. However these composites still require the use of volatile amine based curing agents that pose a serious health risk to those producing the materials. Additionally there has been limited investigation into the introduction of reactive functional groups to polyaniline post-polymerization and no examples of polyamine moieties being introduced. The purpose of linking the curing agent and filler together into one material is to eliminate the need for volatile amines when producing composite materials as well as improving the mechanical and thermal properties of the composite system. Polymer functionalization was achieved through a series of solid state oxidations and reductive nucleophilic additions to preserve the morphological features of the polymer and to maximize the number of active amines available for curing. Characterization of the compounds was carried out using ATR- FTIR, UV-Visible spectrometry, and SEM while the thermal properties were evaluated using DSC and TGA. Oxidation of the backbone to the pernigraniline state was confirmed by the increase in intensity of the quinoid imine band at 1580 cm-1 and successful attachment of TETA by the reduction of the quinoid imine band and the appearance of sp3 C-H stretches from 2990 to 2800 cm- 1 as well as N-H stretching bands from 3500-3300 cm-1.