A new method in the synthesis of conductive polymers; synthesis, characterization, and investigation of photocatalytic properties of polyaniline

As known, in the synthesis of conductive polyaniline polymer from aniline monomer, the polymerization medium must be acidic. In order to make the polymerization medium acidic, protonic acids such as HCl and H2SO4 are generally used. In this study, two acids have been used to make the polymerization medium acidic. One of them, as we know, is H2SO4 as a protonic acid. The other acid is the zinc ion, which is a Lewis acid. The metal ion has never been used for this purpose up to now. Two polyaniline polymers have been synthesized to prove that conductive polymers can also be synthesized in the presence of metal ions instead of protonic acid. One of them is the polyaniline polymer, synthesized in the presence of H2SO4(PANI). The other polymer is polyaniline polymer, synthesized in the presence of zinc ions as acid (PANI-Zn-PSS). The synthesized polymers have been characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), X-ray diffraction diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis.), thermal analysis techniques (thermo-gravimetric analysis, TGA)/differential thermal analysis, DTA) and electrical conductivity measurements kit. The photocatalytic activities of polymers synthesized have been investigated by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in aqueous medium under UV light.