Abstract
Poly(amide-imide)/polyaniline blends containing 2% and 10% polyaniline have been prepared by casting the dispersion resulting from the mixture of polyaniline (micrometer size) with poly(amide-imide) in tetrahydrofuran as solvent onto glass plates. Polyaniline has been synthesized by chemical polymerization of aniline in the presence of (NH4)2S2O8 followed by dedoping with ammonium hydroxide. The poly(amide-imide) has been obtained by solution polycondensation of a fluorinated bis(o-aminophenol), 2,2-bis(3-amino-4-hydroxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane, with a diacid chloride having imide rings and hexa-fluoroisopropylidene unit, namely 2,2-bis[N-(4-chloroformylphenyl)phthalimidyl]hexafluoropropane. The thermal properties and sensitivity of pure poly(imide-amide) and its blends with polyaniline to vapors of acetone, ethanol and liquefied petroleum gas were investigated. All samples showed high thermal stability, decomposition temperature being above 270°C. They exhibited sensitivity to the tested gases, those containing 10% polyaniline presented the greatest sensitivity to acetone vapors. Keywords: polymer blends, polyaniline, poly(amide-imide), thermal stability, sensors