A PHOTOCURABLE METHOD FOR COPPER(II) OXIDEDOPED POLYANILINE CONDUCTING POLYMER MEMBRANE SYNTHESIS

The development of conductive polyaniline (PANI) membrane doped with copper(II) oxide (CuO) by means of the photopolymerization method has been successfully carried out. The photocurable PANI polymeric material was synthesized by mixing 0.011 g of aniline monomer with 0.016 g of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) crosslinker, 0.021 g of dimethoxy phenylacetophenone (DMPP) photoinitiator and 0.026 g of CuO dopant. The electrical conductivity analysis showed that the as-synthesized CuO-doped PANI (PANI/CuO) film possessed an optimum electrical conductivity value of 39.81×10 -3 S cm -1 at the dopant loading of 0.011 g CuO. Chemical elucidation by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that the PANI/CuO conducting material with several main functional groups e.g., N-H, C-H, C-N, C=C, C=N, C-O and C=O chemical bonds were identified. Meanwhile, optical characterization of the resulting PANI/CuO membrane by using UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer (DR/UV-vis) showed that PANI underwent electron transition π-π* (C=C) at a wavelength of 324 nm, and band gap values of 2.35 eV, 1.33 eV, 1.39 eV, 1.42 eV, 1.42 eV, and 1.50 eV for PANI, PANI/CuO 0.011 g, PANI/CuO 0.016 g, PANI/CuO 0.021 g, PANI/CuO 0.026 g, and CuO, respectively.