High Temperature-mechanical Mixing to Prepare Electrically Conductive Sulfur-vulcanised Poly(butadiene-co-acrylonitrile)-polyaniline dodecylbenzenesulfonate Blends

High temperature-mechanical mixing method (by using the combination of internal mixer and two-roll mill) was successfully used for the first time in order to prepare sulfur-vulcanised poly(butadiene-co-acrylonitrile)-polyaniline dodecylbenzenesufonate [NBR-PAni.DBSA] blends. The addition of sulfur fur as the vulcanising agent did not affect the electrical properties of all these vulcanised blends (with good electrical conductivity Up to 10(-2)S.cm(-1) and low conductivity percolation threshold at only 5.0 wt %/4.5 volume % of PAni.DBSA loadings). The FT-IR spectra of the vulcanised NBR-PAni.DBSA blends resembled a superposition of the spectra of constituent NBR and PAni.DBSA, but with some notable peak shifts due to changing intermolecular interactions between the two polymer components. Blends with :! 30 wt % of PAni.DBSA gave the best compatibility i.e. with largest peak shifts for their FTIR spectra and largest temperature shifts for their DSC recorded thermal events. The scanning electron microscopy study of the vulcanised blends showed that the level of electrical conductive network formation was enhanced with increase of PAni.DBSA content.