Polymerization of Solid-State Aminophenol to Polyaniline Derivative Using a Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma

We present a method to prepare polyaminophenol from solid-state aminophenol monomers using atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma. The polymerizations of o-aminophenol and m-aminophenol are studied. The polymers were analyzed via Fourier-Transform inferred spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. The kinetics of the polymerization reactions were investigated by using UV-vis and the polymerization was found to be first-order for both o-aminophenol and m-aminophenol. The resulting polymer film exhibits a conductivity of 1.0 × 10−5 S/m for poly-o-aminophenol (PoAP) and 2.3 × 10−5 S/m for poly-m-aminophenol (PmAP), which are two orders more conductive than undoped (~10−7 S/m) polyaniline (PANI), The PoAP has a quinoid structure and the PmAP has an open ring keto-derivative structure. The process provides a simple method of preparing conductive polyaminophenol films.