Facile Preparation and Characterization of Polyaniline-iron Oxide Ternary Polymer Nanocomposites by Using " Mechanical Mixing " Approach

Abstract

Polymer science and technology has received momentous research consideration in last some decades. An effortless and cost-effective access to the synthesis of a nanocomposite material of polyaniline (PANI)-iron oxide Fe3O4 nPs has been improved. Polyaniline-iron oxide (PANI-nFe3O4) nanocomposites were synthesized by increasing the wt% of nano iron oxide (nFe3O4) with in the presence of PANI materials. Mechanical mixing method is used in the preparation of PANI-nFe3O4 nanocomposites material. The chemical structure of pure PANI and PANI-nFe3O4 nanocomposites is characterized by using Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy and it is also used to analyze the stretching vibration, wavenumber shifting and chemical structure changes of nanocomposites. The optical properties were characterized by using UV-Visible spectroscopy and the band gap value of pure PANI, PANI-nFe3O4 (50%), PANI-nFe3O4 (100%) are 3.284 eV, 3.214 eV and 3.201 eV respectively; it was observed that the band gap value of nanocomposites decreased with increase in the concentration of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Crystalline nature of pure PANI and its nanocomposites were analysized by using the X-Ray diffraction spectroscopy. pure PANI has amorphous nature. By increasing the iron oxide nPs the amorphous nature of pure PANI decreases while its crystalline nature increases. The bacterial growth (E-Coli and staphylococcus aureus), the resultant increase in the zone of inhibition due to increase in the weight % of Fe3O4 nPs were studied using antibacterial activity. Introduction. In recent research, the preparation of conducting polymer nanocomposites (CPnCs) has obtained a great deal of interest in physics and chemistry materials research community because of different potential applications of these materials in chemical sensing, polymer batteries catalysis, energy storage, solar cells, light emitting diode (LED), organic light emitting diode (OLED) and medical diagnosis etc., [1]. The synthesis of organic-inorganic nanocomposites has become the subject of extensive studies. The nanocomposites containing organic polymers (polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, poly-o-toluidine etc.,) and inorganic particles in nano metal oxide (nFe3O4, nNiO, nSb2O3, nZnO, nTiO2, nCuO, nCrO2, nV2O5 and nAl2O3 etc.,) provide an entirely new class of materials with novel properties. Nowadays, syntheses of new CPnCs with improved mechanical properties, processability, or heat resistance in comparison to corresponding pure conducting polymers alone, as well as the studies of their electrical, optical, magnetic, and catalytic properties constitute a great scientific challenge [2]. Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the most extensively studied conducting polymers because of its simple synthesis and doping-dedoping chemistry, low cost, high conductivity, excellent environmental stability, and wide potential applicability, erasable optical information storage, shielding of electromagnetic interference, microwave and radar