Electrical conductivity response of polyaniline films to ethanol–water mixtures

Polyaniline emeraldine base was chemically synthesized and converted to polyaniline emeraldine salts through the protonation doping process using HCl and CH3COOH as the acid dopants. The doped polyanilines were characterized by ultraviolet–visible (UV–VIS) spectroscopy, Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, TGA, GPC. The four-point probe technique was used to evaluate the effect of dopant type and doping molar ratio on the specific conductivity. Weak acid doping, by CH3COOH, produces films with the specific conductivity which depends solely on the degree of protonation, or the number of charge carriers. On the other hand, stronger acid doping by HCl can induce crystalline domains, a greater electron mobility and hence a greater specific conductivity value. The specific conductivity of the HCl-doped and CH3COOH-doped polyaniline films responds with positive increments upon exposed to water and ethanol. The interchain H-transfer is suggested to be a common mechanism which increases electron mobility upon exposure to water and ethanol, whereas additional protonation occurs only with the exposure to water. No evidence for ethanol molecules to interact chemically with the doped polyaniline films was found. The film electrical conductivity sensitivity is inversely proportional to ethanol concentration, with a higher sensitivity to concentration found in the film doped with the acid with a lower pKa value.