Carbon Nanotubes Reinforced Conducting Polyaniline And Its derivative Poly(o-anisidine) Composites 

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2013, 'ICNANO 2011', 4 (1), pp 35-38

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2013.icnano.101

Publication Date (Web): Oct 14, 2012

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

Abstract

Conducting polymer nanocomposites (PANI-CNT and POAS-CNT) have been synthesized by polymerization of aniline (ANI)/ o-anisidine (OAS) in the presence of functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). These nanocomposites have been characterized by UV-VIS, FTIR and SEM to study the effect of incorporation of MWCNTs on the morphology, structure and crystalline of the conducting polyaniline and its substitute derivate poly(o-anisidine). UV-VIS spectra shows that polaron-π* and π-π* transition bands of the PANI/POAS chain shifted to longer wavelengths, indicating the interaction between quinoid rings and MWCNTs. FTIR spectra shows that the interaction between the MWCNTs and PANI/POAS may result in ‘charge transfer’, whereby the sp2 carbons of the MWCNTs compete with dopant ions [Cl^–] and perturb the H-bond, resulting an increase in the N-H stretching intensity. Electron microscopy reveals that the interaction between the quinoid ring of PANI/POAS and the MWCNTs causes PANI and POAS polymer chains to be adsorbed at the surface of MWCNTs, thus forming a tubular core surrounding the MWCNTs. The nanocomposites showed high electrical conductivity compared to pure PANI/POAS. Further, PANI-CNT showed high electrical conductivity compared to that of POAS-CNT.

Keywords

Conducting polymers, polyaniline, poly(o-anisidine), multi-walled carbon nanotubes, nanocomposites.