Synthesis and physicochemical characterization of poly(azomethine)esters containing aliphatic/aromatic moieties: Electrical studies complemented by DFT calculation

A conducting poly(azomethine)ester was prepared by solution phase polycondensation of a preformed Schiff base, 4‐((4‐(4‐(4‐hydroxybenzlideneamino) phenoxy)phenylimino)methyl)phenol and isophthaloyl chloride (I). Different aliphatic/aromatic moieties were incorporated for examining their effect on the electronic properties of material. The resulting polymers (10^?4 to 25 S cm^?1) were doped with silver (10^?6 to 10^?2 S cm^?1) and blended with polyaniline (10^?1 to 13.4 S cm^?1) to enhance their electrical conductivity. Polymer/polyaniline blends had superior conductivity even at low polyaniline concentration relative to the silver‐doped chains. The data obtained experimentally were complemented by density function theory at the 6–31G/B3LYP level. The results showed that ΔE along with lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and highest occupied molecular orbital electron density accounts for the electrical properties. Spectroscopic (¹HNMR, FTIR) and elemental analysis were used for structural elucidation. Structure–property relation in term of WXRD, SEM‐EDX, atomic force microscope, LLS, and thermal behavior was studied. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40698.