Synthesis of conducting polysiloxane — polypyrrole graft copolymers

Summary Polysiloxane-polypyrrole graft copolymers have been synthesized by a series of chemical reactions and subsequent electropolymerization. First, the hydrosilation of 4-vinyl aniline by dimethyl-methylhydrosiloxane copolymer gave the corresponding aminophenyl functional polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS-NH₂). The side chain pyrrole functionalized polysiloxanes were then prepared by the reaction of PDMS-NH₂ with glycidylpyrrole. Finally, the synthesis of graft copolymers of polysiloxane and pyrrole has been achieved electrochemically by using two different electrolytes, p-toluene sulfonic acid (PTSA) and tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBAFB). Characterization of these graft copolymers were performed by a combination of techniques consisting of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal gravimetry (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses and FT-IR studies. The conductivities were measured by four-probe technique. Received: 19 September 2001/ Revised version: 4 December 2001/ Accepted: 2 December 2001