Conductive Polymer Composites for Electronics and Biosensing : Syntheses and Characterization of Conductive Polymers and Functional Nanofibers

A series of electroactive polymers is reported and most of these are intrinsically conductive. These conductive polymers are from poly(3-alkythiophene) family. The non-conducting functional polymer, a, -bi[2,4- dinitrophenyl caproic] [poly(ethyleneoxide)-b-poly(2-methoxystyrene)-b-poly(ethylene oxide)] was reinforced with single-walled carbon nanotubes. Composites of this polymer with polystyrene and SWCNTs were electrospun to form nanofiber mats. The nanofibers had diameters between 65 to 500 nm. The nanofibers were incubated in fluorescently (FITC) tagged Immunoglobulin E, IgE and they showed biospecificity towards IgE. The conductive polymers of 3-alkylthiophenes were prepared using the Grignard metathesis reaction, oxidative coupling with ferric chloride as well as copolymerization via ATRP with poly(3-decylthiophene) as the macroinitiator. These environmentally stable polymers show a glass transition mostly between 48 to 50 °C and the p to p* transition of the conjugated polymers is evidenced in wavelength of their absorption in the UV/Vis/NIR as the spectra indicated. The particle sizes obtained by light scattering showed average diameter between 28 to 40 nm for the polymers.