Polyaniline-NiO Nanocomposites as Tunable Conducting Materials

Publication date: 2019Source: Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 15, Part 3Author(s): Hemshankar Saha Roy, Md. Mominul Islam, M. Yousuf A. Mollah, Md. Abu Bin Hasan SusanAbstractPolyaniline-NiO (PAni-NiO) nanocomposites with varying content of NiO nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline in aqueous acidic solution containing dispersed NiO NPs and the electrical properties were studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.The electrical conductivity and band gap energy (Eg) were correlated with the composition of the nanocomposites and discussed in terms of variation of the wt% of NiO NPs. The values of the Eg of the materials prepared were determined from UV-visible reflectance spectroscopic measurement using Kubelka-Munk equation. The Eg of PAni and typically PAni-13% NiO composite were 2.93 and 2.82 eV, respectively. The electrical conductivity was influenced by the Eg. The composition of the nanocomposites in particular wt.% NiO NPs also significantly influenced the conductivity. Dipoles and induced dipoles of PAni and PAni-NiO nanocomposites have profound influences on AC electrical conductivity due to dependence on frequency against the applied electric field. The AC conductivity of PAni is rather low but increased abruptly for the nanocomposite with 13% NiO NPs by ca. 500 times. The results of the Eg and AC conductivity of PAni-NiO nanocomposites suggest that nanocomposites of this kind would be promising materi...
Source: Materials Today: Proceedings - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research