Optical And Electrical Properties Of Conducting Polyaniline Nanofibers Synthesized By Interfacial And Rapid Mixing Polymerization

Abstract

One dimensional conducting polymer nanostructures have been the focus of quite extensive studies worldwide due to their high aspect ratio, high porosity apart from high surface area to volume ratio. Conducting polyaniline nanofibers can be synthesized by various methods. In this paper, we report the preparation of polyaniline nanofibers with an average diameter of 40–70 nm by two different simple approach rapid mixing and interfacial polymerization. The key to producing polyaniline nanofibers is to suppress secondary growth. Based on this, interfacial polymerization and rapidly mixed reactions have been developed that can readily produce nanofibers by slightly modifying the conventional chemical synthesis of polyaniline without the need for any template or structural directing agent. Synthesized polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, Xray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy for their structural and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy for optical properties. Direct and indirect transition energy gaps were determined from their Tauc plots. The absorption spectra show a linear fit for the transition. Electrical properties of the synthesized polyaniline nanofibers have been studied and the Arrhenius plots of electrical conductivity for the samples synthesized by rapid mixing and interfacial polymerization method show an approximate equal in their activation energy. The results obtained from optical and electrical properties are well compared, correlated and explained with respect to interfacial and rapid mixing polymerization techniques. Copyright © 2014 VBRI press.