Further improvement of flame retardancy of polyaniline-deposited paper composite through using phytic acid as dopant or co-dopant

Polyaniline (PANI)-deposited electrically conductive and flame retardant paper composite was prepared using phytic acid (PA) as dopant or co-dopant. PA as doping acid greatly improved the flame retardancy of PANI-deposited paper composite whilst the conductivity was lower compared with using 5-sulfosalicylic acid (SSA) as doping acid. Lower temperature was favorable to obtain PANI-deposited paper composite with both higher conductivity and better flame retardancy. Conductivity of PANI-deposited paper composite increased with increase of doping acid concentration and the suitable PA concentration range was 0.15-0.3 mol/L depending on the requirement of conductivity and flame retardancy. The PANI-deposited paper composite was characterized by SEM, TGA and XPS. The outstanding flame retardancy of PA-doped paper composite was caused by the synergetic effect of PANI coating and H3PO4. Both higher flame retardancy and higher conductivity of PANI-deposited paper composite were obtained by co-doping of SSA with PA.