Synthesis and characterization of poly (aniline-co-carbazole) conductive copolymer and its carbon based nanocomposite

Conductive polymers are a class of materials which exhibit highly reversible redox behavior and the unusual combination of properties of metal and plastics. Among various conductive polymers, polyaniline (PANI) is a unique candidate for practical applications due to its good processability, environmental stability, low cost and reversible control of electrical properties by both charge–transfer doping and protonation [1]. Besides that, carbazole is an attractive heterocyclic compound that is an important monomer in the construction of the carbazole oligomer and polymer base material [2]. Polycabazole was studied in some aspects that showed unique properties in point of view electerical, electrochemical and optic fields [3]. However the redox sites in conductive homopolymers are not sufficiently stable during the many cycled redox processes, so conductive polymers suffer from disadvantages that include lower cycle-life and slow kinetics of ion transport [4]. Moreover, conductive polymers have low solubility in common organic solvent, and poor processability. For these reasons, the copolymer and composites of conductive polymers have been synthesized by either chemical or electrochemical polymerization.Hence, in the present work we describe herein the synthesis of aniline-carbazole copolymer and its carbon based nanocomposites (CBN) via oxidative polymerization. Structural characterization and physical properties such as solubility, electrical conductivity, antioxidant and antibacterial activity of the materials were studied in this project.