Thermally stable forms of electrically conductive polyaniline

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.sup.-5 ohm.sup.-1 cm.sup.1, wherein:
• R.sub.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.sub.2 and R.sub.4 are the same or different at each occurrence and are hydrogen or alkyl;
• and
• R.sub.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.sub.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.sub.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.sub.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.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 substituents individually include from 1 to about 30 carbon atoms.