Enhancement of electrical characteristics of electrospun polyaniline nanofibers by embedding the nanofibers with Ga-doped ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

Polyaniline nanofibers embedded with undoped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) or Ga-doped ZnO (ZnO:Ga) NPs were fabricated and their structural and electrical properties were investigated. The uniform distribution of the NPs inside the polyaniline nanofibers was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy analysis. Polyaniline nanofibers embedded with ZnO:Ga-NPs showed their higher conductivities, compared with polyaniline nanofibers embedded with undoped ZnO-NPs. Single nanofibers electrospun from a mixture of a polyaniline solution with a 30vol% ZnO:Ga-NPs dispersed-solution showed approximately five times higher conductivity than those electrospun from the polyaniline solution alone. This observation indicates that the embedding of the ZnO:Ga-NPs significantly enhances the electrical characteristics of the polyaniline nanofibers.