Studies on surface morphology and thermal stability of polypyrrole-poly (e-caprolactone) polymer composites

Abstract

: Polypyrrole (PPy) polymer composites were prepared via chemical polymerization of the pyrrole monomer in an aqueous solution using different weight percentages of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt%) as the dopant and ammonium per sulfate as the oxidant. The cryst-allinity of the synthesized PPy-PCL composites was dete-rmined using X-ray diffraction, and the surface morphology was observed under scanning electron and transmission electron microscopes. Thermogravimetry, differential thermogravimetry, and differential scanning calorimetry were used to study the thermal stability of the compo-sites, which was found higher than that of pure PPy. The improvement in the thermal stability of the PPy-PCL composites is attributed to the interaction between PPy and PCL, which restricts the thermal motion of the PPy chains and prevents the degradation of PPy.