Thermal stability of polyaniline

Among conducting polymers with metallic characteristics, polyaniline (PANI) is claimed to have one of the highest environmental stability. From an industrial point of view it would be useful to be able to thermally process this material into useful products using conventional techniques such as extrusion, stretching, rolling, etc., which generally are carried out at elevated temperatures. Somewhat surprisingly, relatively few studies have addressed the thermal stability of PANI, in particular that of the non-protonated emeraldine base form. Therefore, a study of the thermal properties was performed to examine the thermal stability of this material and to identify the optimum processing and maximum application temperatures.