Continuous production of conducting polymer

Abstract

A device to continuously produce polypyrrole was designed, manufactured, and tested. Polypyrrole is a conducting polymer which has potential artificial muscle applications. The objective of continuous production was to produce both larger films and films with more consistent properties than the films produced by the current batch-production method. The mechanical properties of polymers produced by batch synthesis are known to be highly dependent on reaction parameters such as temperature, and reactant and electrolyte concentrations. A system of peltier thermoelectric coolers and refrigerated-circulator held the deposition chamber at -10⁰C. The polypyrrole film deposited onto the surface of a rotating glassy carbon crucible was peeled off using a blade and spring force mechanism. The temperature, current, and voltage of the electrodeposition were recorded. Several successful, but short, continuous deposition trials were run at a current density of 0.5 A/m² and a film 50 mm long and 0.246 mm thick was produced and tested. High rate depositions were also attempted at 150 A/m² but failed due to over-oxidation. In this thesis, it is demonstrated that continuous production appears feasible. A second prototype of the device is proposed with several improvements, the most important of which are a larger torque applied to the rotating crucible and a more effective and efficient cooling mechanism.