Template synthesis of polyaniline in the presence of phosphomannan

The synthesis of a water-soluble and conducting polyaniline (PANI)–phosphomannan (PMa) complex is presented. Chemical polymerization of aniline was carried out in the presence of PMa, a novel polymeric phosphoric acid and a kind of biomaterial. It was found that the extent of polymerization was affected greatly by initial molar ratio of aniline to PMa in reaction media. A water-soluble and conducting PANI–PMa complex has been obtained under suitable conditions and it exhibited a maximum conductivity by appropriate control of molar ratio of aniline to PMa. The synthesized PANI was characterized by UV–VIS, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and inherent viscosity. TGA showed that PANI–PMa complex has highly thermal stability, which was also confirmed by conductivity measurement after exposing the casting films at high temperature.