Polymer composites of charge-transfer materials -: II -: Benzidine-iodine (1:1) in poly(vinylchloride)

Benzidine-iodine (1:1) charge-transfer complex has been used as a filler for preparing the polymer composite in poly(vinylchloride). The composite is characterized by spectral, thermal, mechanical, structural and electrical methods. The properties of the composites were compared with the properties of the pure charge-transfer complex. The polymer composites exhibit high semiconducting behaviour with electrical conductivities in the range of 10(-7) to 10(-10) S/cm, and thermal activation energies in the range of 0.4 eV to 0.7 eV. Very low percolation threshold (5 wt%) has been found. The frequency dependence of AC conductivity of these composites showed contribution from grain, grain boundary and electrode as a function of charge-transfer complex (CTC) content. At low CTC content, all the three contributions were present but at high CTC content, only one contribution (grain and electrode masked together) was observed. These materials are processable conducting plastics which could be used for commercial applications, such as the fabrication of solid state galvanic cells.