Preparation and properties of multilayered polymer/nanodiamond composites via an in situ technique

Abstract

Abstract Compared to conventional materials, nanocomposites of conjugated polymers are found to have excellent performance due to a larger exposed surface area. In this study, polyaniline (PANi), polypyrrole (PPy), polythiophene (PTh) and polyazopyridine (PAP)/nanodiamonds (NDs) composites were efficiently synthesized by in situ oxidative polymerization. Physical characteristics of fabricated nanocomposites were explored using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). FTIR indicated layer-by-layer oxidative polymerization of various matrices on functional ND (F-ND) surfaces. FESEM revealed the fibrillar (web-like) morphology of multilayered nanocomposites having a granular arrangement of NDs. TGA of multilayered F-NDs/PAP/PANi/PTh showed 10% degradation at an enhanced temperature of 482°C compared with F-NDs/PANi/PPy/PTh (471°C). Improvement in glass transition of layered material was observed from 99°C (NDs/PANi/PPy/PTh) to 121°C (NDs/PAP/PANi/PTh). Functional filler also contributed towards the enhancement in the conductivity of NDs/PAP/PANi/PTh (5.7 S cm-1) relative to NDs/PANi/PPy/PTh (3.7 S cm-1) systems. New conducting composites are potentially important in various applications, including polymer lithium-ion batteries.