Preparation, Characterization, and Electrical Properties of ZSM-5/PEG Composite Particles Mahmoud A. Hussein, 1,2,3 Bahaa M. Abu-Zied, 1,2,3 Abdullah M. Asiri 1 1 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 3 Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ZSM-5/PEG composites were synthesized by a simple solution method with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and H- ZSM-5 zeolite (Si/Al 5 11.4). The obtained composites were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The obtained results indicated that the ZSM-5 was physically com- bined with PEG. The thermal properties and thermal stability were investigated by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses. In situ electrical conduc- tivity was used to follow-up the changes in the electri- cal conductance during the heating of the ZSM-5/PEG composite. It was found that ZSM-5 is able to effec- tively enhance the electrical conductivity of PEG. The results showed that the obtained weight loss during the composite decomposition to charcoal is accompa- nied by a decrease in the electrical conductivity. More- over, the removal of the formed charcoal is associated with an electrical conductivity increase. Calcining the ZSM-5/PEG composite having a content of 30% results in many effects on the structural, textural, and electri- cal properties of the obtained products. POLYM. COM- POS., 35:1160–1168, 2014. V C 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers INTRODUCTION There has been considerable interest in using of organic–inorganic structures during the development of polymer industry, where inorganic materials were used as fillers in polymeric matrixes in the search of improve- ments in the material’s properties [1]. Although these materials can be considered biphasic, their properties are not the simple sum of individual contributions of both phases due to the important role of their interfaces on the material’s characteristics [2, 3]. During the last two deca- des, polymer-based organic–inorganic composites have received world-wide attention in the field of material sci- ence. This is due to the fact that the resultant materials may offer superior performance in terms of mechanical toughness for engineering resins, permeability, and selec- tivity for gas/liquid separation, and photoconductivity for electronics [4–6]. In the literature, there are many studies dealing with the characterization of interfaces and their influence on the mechanical properties of particulate filled composites. Incorporation of polymer network into inorganic hosts is of great since this enables us to combine characteristics of the parent constituents as a consequence of their molec- ular level interaction. Zeolites are the most favorable host materials due to their highly ordered pore systems, chan- nels and cages of different dimensions and shapes and the surface with negatively charge-balanced with exchangeable cations [7]. Besides, the intercalation of a polymer into a porous and leafy material, like zeolite, protects the former from degradation, reducing its aging rate. Zeolites have a number of interesting physical and chemical properties. The three properties which are of greatest practical impor- tance are the ability to absorb organic and inorganic sub- stances, to act as cation exchangers, and to catalyze a wide variety of reactions. The catalytic properties of zeolites can be understood by studying the adsorption characteristic of molecules accumulated on their surface using IR spectros- copy [8, 9]. Owing to the size and shape selectivity of zeo- lites crystals and their Lewis and Br€ onsted acid sites, zeolites are used for molecular gas separation and purifica- tion. Zeolites has also been used as template synthesis of polyaniline to produce nanocomposite devices and sensors [10, 11]. Recently, Ballav and Biswas prepared composites of polythiophene, poly(N-vinylcarbazole), polypyrrole and polyaniline with 13X-zeolite [12, 13]. As a representative linear polymer, polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a nontoxic, noncorrosive polymer and has Correspondence to: B.M. Abu-Zied; e-mail: babuzaid@kau.edu.sa or babuzied@aun.edu.eg or babuzied@yahoo.com DOI 10.1002/pc.22763 Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). V C 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers POLYMER COMPOSITES—2014