Morphology, Conductivity and Microwave Absorption Behavior of Polyaniline Nanocomposites after Chemical Treatment

Abstract

In this study, the hexanoic acid (HA) doped Polyaniline (PAni) nanocomposites which comprise aniline (Ani) as a monomer, titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a dielectric material and fullerene (C60) as a carbonaceous material with and without treated with different types of sulfonic groups: dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (AOT), sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonicate (DBSA) and camphorsulfonic acid (CSA) were synthesized through the template-free method. The fourier transform infrared (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) characterization of PAni nanocomposites validated the functional groups, conducting behavior, existing of an inorganic material and thermal stability of PAni nanocomposites, respectively. Besides, an increment of electrical conductivities of the PAni nanocomposites from 3.655 × 10−2 S/cm (without chemical treatment) to 5.433 × 10−2 – 1.708 × 10−1 S/cm (after chemical treatment) was obtained by the four-point probe method. This increment can be explained by the formation of nanorods/nanotubes via field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). Based on the data obtained from the microwave vector network analyzer (MVNA), the PAni/HA/TiO2/C60 nanocomposites (treated with CSA) revealed a narrow and sharp reflection loss (RL) peak with high absorption (−61.3 dB) due to its highest conductivity, dielectric permittivity and heterogeneity which eventually enhanced the microwave absorption properties, while those without chemical treatment showed a broad RL peak with poor absorption (−37.2 dB). Based on the researchers’ knowledge, the PAni/HA/TiO2/C60 nanocomposites with a chemical treatment that shows a good absorption is the first being reported here.

A study on the fabrication and microwave shielding properties of PANI/C60 heterostructures

“…Figure 5(A) shows the IR spectra of six samples, respectively. The intensity of two C 60 characteristic peaks is at 527 and 577 cm ‐1 [ 26, 27 ] Compared with pure C 60 , the increased peak in all PANI/C 60 samples was the same as that in pure PANI. The main peaks showed at 3436, 1560 and 1473 cm −1 corresponding to NH stretching vibration, quinone, and benzene ring deformation, [ 28–30 ] respectively.…”

“…Pure C 60 has sharp diffraction peaks at 2θ = 11 , 17.5 , and 21 . [27] The pure PANI has obvious diffraction peaks at 2θ = 20 and 25 . [31,32] As can be seen from the patterns, with the increase of the concentration of doped acid, it can be seen that the remaining samples, like pure PANI, have obvious diffraction peaks at 2θ = 20 and 25 , indicating that the PANI has a certain orientation ordering and the crystallinity increases.…”

Development of cellulose-based conductive fabrics with electrical conductivity and flexibility

“…CMC-PANI was attributed to the periodicity perpendicular to the PANI chain direction [58]. These peaks demonstrated that PANI was successfully polymerized inside BC-PANI and CC-PANI.…”