A STUDY ON THE TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF THE ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF A PYROLYZED CYANO-SUBSTITUTED POLYAMIDE DERIVED FROM 1,4-BIS(2-CYANO-2-CARBOXYVINYL)BENZENE

An unsaturated polyamide with pendant cyano groups was prepared from 1,4-bis(2-cyano-2-carboxyvinyl)benzene, and its electrical conductivity was studied, as a function of temperature, following pyrolysis at 550, 650 and 700-degrees-C. The results show that the unpyrolysed polymer has insulating properties at room temperature, whereas a dramatic increase of the electrical conductivity is observed with increasing pyrolysis temperature, ranging from 6.451 x 10(-6) S cm-1 at 550-degrees-C to 8.130 x 10(-1) S cm-1 at 700-degrees-C. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity of the pyrolysed polymer suggests that the resulting material has semiconducting properties. The observed electrical conductivity is thermally activated, and may be associated with both intermolecular and intramolecular conduction processes, with activation energies ranging from 0.13 to 0.02 eV for the intermolecular conduction process and from 0.26 to 0.05 eV for the intramolecular process, depending on the pyrolysis temperature that is used.