Electrical and Optical Properties of Conducting Copolymer: Poly(aniline-Co-N-Ethylaniline)

Copolymers of aniline and N-ethylaniline were prepared by chemical oxidation with ammonium peroxodisulphate in aqueous acidic medium under nitrogen atmosphere. The products have been characterized by solubility, spectroscopic method, and electrical conductivity measurement. The solubility and spectroscopic analysis suggested that the product is a copolymer of aniline and N-ethylaniline. The optical spectra of the homopolymer and copolymer show hypsocromic shift with the increase in dielectric constant of the solvent and with increasing the content of N-ethylaniline in the copolymer. The electrical conductivity of poly(aniline-co-N-ethylaniline) salts was measured as a function of temperature. The conductivity of copolymers decreases with increasing N-ethylaniline content. The conduction mechanism is polaron hopping conduction as similar to the case of polyaniline. Most-probable hopping distance, hopping energy, and localization lengths of copolymers have been compared to those of homopolymers.