Novel hybrid materials based on Montmorillonite-modified reinforced p-phenylenediamine: Synthesis, characterization and their optical, electrochemical and thermal properties

Abstract

• Hybrid materials based poly(pPD) and Mt-modified were constructed by in-situ polymerization. • The obtained materials were characterized by XPS, FT-IR, XRD, UV-vis, TGA and TEM, respectively. • The possible intercalation and exfoliation between Mt-modified and poly(pPD) matrix was discussed. • Significant difference of materials electrochemical properties was observed. poly(pPD)@Mt-Ni and poly(pPD)@Mt-Zn hybrid materials were designed and fabricated by in-situ intercalative polymerization method at room temperature. The resulting samples were tested for their structural properties using techniques such as XRF, XPS, XRD, FTIR, UV–Vis, TGA and TEM, where the results confirm the formation of hybrid architecture. The band gap energy ( E g ) of the materials synthetized is defined using Tauc's plots. Likewise, the E g value for poly(pPD)@Mt-Ni reduced to 3.21 eV. The cause of the bond shifting is assigned to the novel excitation energy-level produced by exfoliated and intercalated of Mt-Ni. In addition, the electrochemical properties of samples were studied by cyclic voltammetry. Compared with the poly(pPD)@Mt-Zn, the poly(pPD)@Mt-Ni exhibits significantly improved. Consequently, based on the acquired results, poly(pPD)@Mt-Ni was found to be a promising candidate for photocatalytic applications.