Polyaniline emeraldine based (PANi-EB) was doped with para-hydroxybenzenesulfonic acid (PHBSA) and combined with polycaprolactone (PCL) to form a doped PANi-PCL interpolymer complex. PANi, when doped with PHBSA, becomes highly conductive. However, it's poor mechanical properties, such as low tensile, compressive, and flexural strength render PANi a non-ideal material to be processed for its various practical applications, such as electromagnetic shielding, anti-corrosion shielding, or as a semiconductor. Therefore, PCL was chosen as an insulating matrix. Although non-conductive, PCL's relatively better mechanical properties make it easily processed into various shapes and forms. Therefore, a blend mixture was created between PANi and PCL through the use of PHBSA as a bifunctional linker that forms a "bridge" between the two polymeric components of the interpolymer complex. Previous researches in blend systems with the use of a bifunctional linker have not been able to find evidence of interaction between the components of the blend. This research sets out to find evidence of a direct interaction between doped PANi and PCL and the effects this interaction has on the final properties of the blend. This interaction would allow PANi to be used in its various applications because of the enhanced mechanical properties from PCL.

The blends were studied using ultraviolet-visible, x-rays diffraction, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and two-probe method for measuring conductivity. Evidence of an interpolymeric interaction through the use of a bifunctional linker was discovered for the first time by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. DSC and x-rays diffraction show that this interaction does not have an effect on PCL's crystalline lattice structure and conductivity remains relatively high even in low concentration of doped PANi in the blends.