Research Article
W. B. Gurnule and Deepti B. Pa
Abstract
The present paper reports the electrical conductivity study of a copolymer resin. The resin oaminophenol (o-AP) - melamine (M) - formaldehyde (F) was synthesized by the condensation of o-aminophenol and melamine with formaldehyde in the presence of a hydrochloric acid catalyst with 1:1:3 molar ratio of reacting monomers. Electrical conductivity measurements have been carried out to ascertain the semiconducting nature of the copolymer resin. The electrical properties of o-APMF copolymer resin were measured over a wide range of temperature (314- 425 K). From the electrical conductivity of this copolymer resin, activation energy of electrical conduction has been evaluated and was found to be 13.65 x 10-20 J/K. The electrical conductivity of the copolymer resin was found to be lies in the range of 1.69 x 10-10 to 4.4 x 10-9 ohm-1 cm-1. The plot of log σ vs. 103 / T was found to be linear over a wide range of temperature, which indicates that the Wilson’s exponential law is obeyed. On the basis of above studies this copolymer can be ranked as semiconductor. When a voltage is applied to a thin film of this copolymer resin then it has emitted light. This remarkable property of this copolymer resin may be used to make a wide range of semiconducting and electronic devices such as transistors, light emitting diodes, solar cells and even lasers which can be manufactured by much simpler way than conventional inorganic semiconductors.