Viscoelastic properties and structure of the zone-drawn polyaniline films

The zone-drawing method was applied to chemically synthesized polyaniline cast films of emeraldine base under various applied tensions and drawing temperatures. The changes in the microstructure and viscoelastic properties of the resulting films were investigated. It was found that the microstructure was strongly affected by the drawing temperature (Td). The crystallinity, crystallite size, and orientation factor of crystallites, respectively, attained 42%, 23 Å, and 0.975 for the film zone-drawn at Td = 170°C, whereas a further increase in the Td brought about a decrease of these values. The viscoelastic measurements indicated that the dynamic storage modulus attained 12 GPa at room temperature and was 5 GPa at 280°C for the film zone-drawn at Td = 210°C, which was comparable to that of the typical engineering plastics.