Conducting polymer nanocomposites with extremely low percolation threshold

Abstract. This article gives a brief review of our work on conducting polyaniline nanocomposites which exhibit extremely low percolation threshold, ca. <003 vol.%. The nanocomposites are essentially blends of nanoparticles of HCI doped polyaniline (PANI) with conventional polymers. The nanoparticles (<20 nm) were prepared by sonicating a suspension of sterically stabilized conoidal PANI particles in solutions of conventional polymers. The sonication process breaks down the stable colloid particles into nanoparticles. The latter are unstable and they aggregate fractally to yield nanocomposites with extremely low percolation threshold.