Title: Effects of gamma irradiation on PMMA/polyaniline nanofibre composites

Authors: Patricia L.B. Araujo, Katia A.S. Aquino, Elmo S. Araujo

Addresses: Laboratorio de Sintese de Compostos Bioativos (DQ/UFRPE), Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Av. Dom Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, 50.171–000 Recife, PE, Brazil. ' Grupo Aplicacoes das Radiacoes em, Sistemas Polimericos (DEN/UFPE), Av. Prof. Luis Freire, 1000, 50.740–540 Recife, PE, Brazil. ' Grupo Aplicacoes das Radiacoes em, Sistemas Polimericos (DEN/UFPE), Av. Prof. Luis Freire, 1000, 50.740–540 Recife, PE, Brazil

Abstract: Polyaniline (PANI) presents promising antioxidant and radical-scavenging properties. Substances having these characteristics are good candidates for radioprotecting agents. In this work, nanofibres of polyaniline emeraldine doped with (±)-camphor-10-sulfonic acid (PANI-(±)-CSA) were prepared by self-assembly method under |silent| and sonochemical conditions. PANI emeraldine base (PANI-EB) nanofibres were obtained after dedoping with NH₄OH and were used as additives in films of commercial PMMA, in order to investigate radiostabilising effects on the PMMA matrix. Films containing aniline (An) and PANI-EB grains were also prepared for comparison. Variations in viscosity-average molar mass (Mv) at a 25 kGy dose showed that samples containing aniline, PANI-EB nanofibres or grains in amounts of 0.15% (wt/wt) underwent less degradation than the control sample. In addition, PMMA/PANI-EB nanofibres and PMMA/An at 0.15% (wt/wt) showed a smaller number of scissions per original molecule (α) than control samples in the 25–75 kGy dose range. Spectroscopic characterisation (FTIR, UV-Vis) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of PANI samples were also performed.

Keywords: polyaniline nanofibres; PMMA composites; low radiation; self-assembly; carbon nanotubes seeding; ultrasound; stabilisation; viscosity; gamma irradiation; nanotechnology; nanofibre composites.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLR.2007.015439

International Journal of Low Radiation, 2007 Vol.4 No.2, pp.149 - 160

Published online: 17 Oct 2007 *

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