Kevin Frederick¹ Krishna Muralidharan¹ Barrett Potter¹ Srini Raghavan¹ Douglas Loy^{1 2}

1, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
2, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States

We are investigating the applicability of the oxidative polymerization of aniline to powder bed inkjet 3D printing technologies. Silica gel and other inorganic solid powders were impregnated with an oxidizing agent, and a solution of aniline hydrochloride was sprayed and patterned onto the powder resulting in the in situ formation of polyaniline. The polyaniline bound the silica particles into a porous, electrically conductive solid. Patterning can be effected with stencils and will be performed with an inkjet printer for smaller feature printing. The effects of oxidant type and reactant concentrations on the polymerization chemistry and composite morphology and properties were investigated.