Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopic Study on Polypyrrole/Barium Titanate/Poly(acrylonitrile-co-methylacrylate) Nanoparticles

Abstract

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and electrical conductivity study of synthesized barium titanate (BaTiO3)-polypyrrole (PPy) [BaTiO3-PPy], BaTiO3-Poly(tert-butyl 1-pyrrole-carboxylate (TBPy) [BaTiO3-TBPy], BaTiO3-poly(acrylonitrile-co-methylacrylate), [BaTiO3- [P(AN-co-MA)]], [BaTiO3-[P(AN-co-MA)]-PPy], and [BaTiO3-[P(AN-co-MA)]-TBPy] nanocomposites were performed for investigation of individual effects of BaTiO3, PPy, TBPy, and [P(AN-co-MA)]. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and equivalent electrical circuit modelling (ECM) were used to investigate the changes in electrical properties of nanocomposites in the presence of BaTiO3, [P(AN-co-MA)], PPy, and TBPy. The EIS data suggested that PPy nanocomposites act like capacitors and capacitance values of nanocomposites were increased with BaTiO3, and conductivity increased due to the interaction between P[AN-co-MA] and BaTiO3. Capacitance values of TBPy nanocomposites were increased with P[AN-co-MA] and BaTiO3, and BaTiO3-PPy and BaTiO3-P[AN-co-MA]-TBPy nanocomposites presented the highest capacitive behavior, and BaTiO3-P[AN-co-MA] nanocomposites had the highest conductivity. The ECM was utilized using experimental EIS spectral data, and an excellent agreement between experimental results. The increase in total Rct value was found to be dependent on the size and surface area of nanoparticles. The conductivities of the nanoparticle containing solutions indicated that conductivity results have been enhanced by the addition of BaTiO3, PPy, and TBPy. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy measurements illustrated that BaTiO3-P[AN-co-MA]-PPy nanocomposites show a good ordering of the aggregates and nodules with semi-circular shapes.