Thermally stable forms of electrically conductive polyaniline

Claim 1

An electrically conductive thermally stable polymer comprising a substituted or unsubstituted polyaniline of film forming molecular weight prepared by polymerizing an aniline of the formula: ##STR4## having dispersed therein a dopant solute of the formula: R.sub.1 SO.sub.3 -- in an amount sufficient to provide a doped polyaniline having a conductivity of at least about 10 -5 ohm -1 cm 1 , wherein: R 1 is a substituted or unsubstituted organic radical; n is an integer from 0 to 4; m is an integer from 0 to 5 with the proviso that the sum of n and m is 5; R 2 and R 4 are the same or different at each occurrence and are hydrogen or alkyl; and R 3 is alkyl, alkenyl, alkoxy, cycloalkyl, cycloalkenyl, alkanoyl, alkylthio, aryloxy, alkylthioalkyl, alkylaryl, arylalkyl, alkylsulfinyl, alkoxyalkyl, alkylsulfonyl, aryl, arylthio, arylsulfinyl, alkoxycarbonyl, alksilyl, arylsulfonyl, carboxylic acid, halogen, cyano, or alkyl substituted with one or more sulfonic acid, carboxylic acid, halogen cyano or epoxy moieties; or any two R 3 substituents taken together are an alkylene or alkenylene group completing a 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 membered aromatic or alicyclic carbon ring or any two R 3 substitutents together may form an alkylene or alkenylene group completing a 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 membered aromatic or alicyclic ring structure which includes one or more divalent ester, carbonyl, nitrogen, sulfur, sulfinyl, sulfonyl or oxygen, or R 3 is an aliphatic moiety having repeat units of the formula: --(OCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2).sub.q O--, or --(OCH.sub.2 CH(CH.sub.3)).sub.q O-- wherein q is a positive whole number; with the proviso that R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 substituents individually include from 1 to about 30 carbon atoms.