In this study, conductive porous composites were fabricated using the host substrate with an interconnected porous network, followed by the penetration and deposition of polypyrrole (PPy) to create a continuous conductive network. The open-porous host substrate was processed using polylactide (PEA) with compression molding and salt leaching techniques. Three different salt contents were varied from 75 wt %, 85 wt %, and 90 wt %, which were referred to by their salt-to-polymer mass ratios of 3, 6, and 9, respectively. The porous network was made conductive by coating its interior surfaces through in situ polymerization of PPy using iron (III) chloride as the oxidant species. These porous composites were then characterized to analyze the relationships between their morphology and their physical, conductive, and mechanical properties. The mechanical properties were then fitted with numerically simulated results from finite element modeling (FEM). (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 117: 3187-3195, 2010