Effects of Ferric Chloride as secondary dopant on the properties of Polyethylene Oxide / Polyvinyl Chloride / Polyaniline conductive films

The potential uses of conductive films in flexible electronic devices have attracted a lot of attention to their development. The mechanical and electrical properties of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) have been investigated as a matrix in electrically conductive polymer composites. However, it is still difficult to increase their electrical conductivity without sacrificing their mechanical integrity. To solve these problems, the use of conductive polymers like polyaniline (PAni) has showed potential. Despite progress, nothing is known about how different PAni concentrations with the inclusion of secondary dopants such ferric chloride (FeCl₃) will affect the overall performance of the PEO/PVC conductive films. The purpose of this work is to examine how the tensile strength, electrical conductivity, and morphological structure of PEO/PVC based conductive films are affected by the addition of PAni and FeCl₃. The results offer guidance on how to best optimize the mixture for PEO/PVC blends with 2.5 wt.%-10 wt.% PAni loadings were fabricated with and without the presence of FeCl3. PAni was doped by dissolving it with 6 wt.% FeCl₃ in toluene to initiate the secondary doping. Then, the doped Pani will be utilized as conductive filler in PEO/PVC/PAni-FeCl3 conductive films. The conductive films were prepared by solution casting method using tetrahydrofuran as the solvent at ambient temperature. The electrical conductivity, tensile strength and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the conductive films was analyzed. The study found that higher loading of PAni increased the electrical conductivity of the conductive films and further improved with the addition of FeCl3. The XRD analysis study supported the findings by revealing the modified structure of PAni, with FeCl3 as the oxidizing agent. The tensile strength, however, decreased with the addition of PAni and FeCl3 in the conductive films due to poor agglomeration of filler.