Electrically conducting composite hydrogels of poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylamide) and polyaniline were prepared by a simple two-step synthesis process using an aqueous polymerization technique at room temperature and interfacial polymerization of aniline at a water/organic-solvent interface. The structures of the hydrogels so prepared were confirmed using Fourier transform infrared, UVvis, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy methods. The tensile strengths of the hydrogels were determined using a standard method (universal testing machine), whereas the electrical conductivities of composite hydrogels of varying compositions were evaluated using a four-probe method. The bending behavior of the conducting hydrogels was investigated by using the effective bending angle method. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 32: E520E530, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/adv.21298