Polyaniline Plastic Nanocomposite as Multi‐Functional Nanomaterial

Abstract

AbstractMixed metal nanocomposites encapsulated with conducting polymer plastic may show synergistic effects in their properties resulting in unique applications in optoelectronic, conducting material, recording tapes, data‐storing quantum dots, catalysis, sensors, adsorption, purification, seperation, biosensors, antibacterial, and anti‐corrosive agents. Encapsulation of Ni/Cu/ZnO (NCZ) nanocomposites (NCs) with polyaniline (PANI) plastic by in situ method results in unique properties. A modified sol‐gel method was used for synthesizing mixed metal NCs. The PANI was synthesized by the chemical‐oxidative method. TEM, FTIR, FESEM, UV‐visible, and XRD techniques were used for characterizing NCZ NCs, PANI, and NCZ/PANI NCs. The theoretical (computational) study was carried out to support the experimental results. The adsorption, magnetic, photocatalytic, photoluminescence, electrical, antibacterial, and anticorrosive properties of NCs were explored. The NCZ/PANI NCs were proved paramagnetic. The optical band gap of NCs observed from UV‐visible and computational techniques were comparable i. e., ∼2.32 eV. The NCs show 86.5 % corrosion inhibition efficiency for mild steel in acidic medium. The adsorption power of the Silica gel/NCs column was greater than the pure silica gel column. The NCs degrade methyl‐red dye in UV light. The antibacterial activity was investigated against E. coli (‐) and bacillus (+). No significant antibacterial activity was observed. The synthesized NCZ/PANI NCs were proved to be very good nanomaterials for adsorption, separation, magnetic, photocatalytic, electrical, and corrosion inhibitor.