Properties of oligopyrrole doped dodecylbenzene–sulfonic acid prepared with different oxidants in reversed microemulsion

The pyrrole-oligomer nanoparticles doped dodecylbenzene–sulfonic acid (DBSA) as surfactant and dopant were fabricated in water–DBSA–isopropyl alcohol–isooctane reverse microemulsion, using three oxidants such as ammonium peroxydisulfate, FeCl3 and CuCl2, separately. The influence of oxidants with different oxidation potentials on the characterizations of three samples has been investigated in detail by a four-probe technique, IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses (TG-DTA), elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and gel permeation chromatography, respectively. We found that the formation of the oligopyrrole is mainly ascribed to the microreaction environment (water pool) supplied by W/O microemulsion and DBSA with a large size, and is independent on the oxidation potentials of oxidants. Meanwhile, the thermal stability of three samples studied by TG-DTA shows some differences, which may be relative to its different doping polymerization mechanism, moreover, this assumption can be further confirmed by the structural analysis, the elemental analysis, the XPS analysis and the measurement of molecular weight of products.