Electrically Conductive Gels Prepared from Syndiotactic Polystyrene and an Ionic Liquid

Syndiotactic polystyrene (SPS) physical gels containing a large amount of the ionic liquid 1-butylpyridinium bromide ([C₄py]Br) were systematically prepared and their physical properties were examined in detail. The gels had stable forms for a long time, having storage elastic modulus values of normal gels. They showed nearly the same values of the electrical conductivity (∼7 mS/cm) as those of the mixed solutions of [C₄py]Br, suggesting that the distribution of [C₄py]Br was uniform in these gels and that the charge transportation in these SPS gels was not interrupted by a three-dimensional network of SPS fibrils consisting of the SPS δ crystalline phases.