Electronic thermal conductivity, thermoelectric properties and supercapacitive behaviour of conjugated polymer nanocomposite (polyaniline-WO3) thin film

Abstract

A facile two-step, binder-free, chemical bath deposition (CBD) method was successfully employed in the synthesis of WO 3 nanograins onto the matrix of conjugated polymer (polyaniline). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the nanocomposite retained monoclinic phase of WO 3 even when dispersed in polyaniline matrix. Owing to the synergistic effect offered by both the nanocomposite and structured metal oxide which may enhance the surface area, polyaniline-WO 3 nanocomposite exhibited good specific capacitance. Polyaniline-WO 3 yielded maximum specific capacitance ~96 F/g at scan rate of 5 mV/s in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 electrolyte. With the electronic thermal conductivity showing strong dependence on temperature, the estimated dimensionless figure of merit zT ~ 10 −3 shows that the polymer nanocomposite (PNC) is promising as a new type of thermoelectric material. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed that the PNC exhibited both pseudocapacitive and electric double layer capacitance behaviour.