Multifunctional polyaniline–tin oxide (PANI–SnO2) nanocomposite: Synthesis, electrochemical, and field emission investigations

Abstract

ABSTRACTSynthesis of PANI–SnO2 nanocomposite has been performed using a simple two step chemical oxidative polymerization route. The structural, morphological and chemical properties of the as‐synthesized PANI–SnO2 nanocomposite have been revealed by various characterization techniques such as SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR, and XPS. Interestingly the as‐synthesized PANI–SnO2 nanocomposite exhibits supercapacitance value of 721 F g−1 with energy density 64 Wh kg−1, which is noticed to be higher than that of pristine SnO2 and PANI nanostructures. Furthermore, the galvanostatic charge–discharge characteristics revealed pseudocapacitive nature of the PANI–SnO2 nanocomposite. The estimated values of charge transfer resistance and series resistance estimated from the Nyquist plot are found to be lower. Along with the supercapacitive nature, PANI–SnO2 nanocomposite showed promising field emission behavior. The threshold field, required to draw emission current density of 1 μA/cm2, is observed to be 0.90 V/μm and emission current density of 1.2 mA/cm2 has been drawn at applied field of ∼2.6 V/μm. The emission current stability investigated at preset values of 0.02 and 0.1 mA/cm2 is observed to be fairly stable over duration of more than 3 h. The enhanced supercapacitance values, as well as, the promising field emission characteristics are attributed to the synergic effect of SnO2 nanoparticles and PANI nanotubes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41401.