Synthesis, doping and electrical conductivity of poly(p-phenylene sulfide)

By the polycondensation of 1,4-dichlorobenzene with sodium sulfide, poly(p-pheny-lene sulfide (PPS) with high molecular weight was synthesized. Various dopants wereinvestigated, and among those that has proved to be effective one is antimony pentachlo-ride (dissolved in nitromethane). The conductivity of SbCl_5-doped PPS can be increasedfrom 10~(16) S/cm to 10~(-2) S/cm. It was found that solvent nitromethane did play an im-portant role in enhancing the rate of doping. The influence of doping time, temperatureand the crystallinity of original PPS on the conductivity of doped PPS was also inves-tigated.