Conducting blends of soluble polyurethane and poly(o-methoxyaniline)

Flexible, conducting and semicrystalline films were obtained by casting polyurethane (PU) and doped poly(o-methoxyaniline) (POMA) mixtures from N,N-dimethylformamide. Free-standing blend films showed an increase of conductivity from about 10−6 to 10−3 S/cm without additional doping as the POMA content in the blends increased from 5 to 65% (by weight). The crystalline structure of the homopolymers was investigated using wide-angle X-ray diffraction and was also compared with that of the blends by electron diffraction. Whereas the pure PU is completely amorphous, POMA is semicrystalline and crystalline regions in the blend were observed even for a PU-POMA 90:10 (by weight) composition. Morphology studies showed connected percolating pathways for blends with a POMA content from 10 to 65% (by weight).