Studies on Nanocomposites of Polyaniline and Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles with Supporting Matrix of Polycarbonate

Shahid Pervez Ansari,Faiz Mohammad

doi:10.5402/2012/129869

Abstract

Nanocomposites of polyaniline and zinc oxide nanoparticles using polycarbonate as supporting matrix were prepared by direct mixing process. These nanocomposites were studied for their DC electrical conductivity using four-in-line probe technique. Stability of DC electrical conductivity in terms of electrical conductivity retention was also studied using two slightly different techniques. The nanocomposites were also characterized using FTIR, SEM, TEM, and XRD. It was found that the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposites first increased with the increase in concentration of ZnO nanoparticles content, but then decreased on further increase in its content. Stability studies showed that the loss in electrical conductivity decreased with increase of ZnO content in nanocomposites. TEM and XRD results showed that nanoparticles are uniformly distributed in polymer matrix and also suggest that the direct solution mixing method may be adopted as an easy and efficient route for the preparation of nanocomposites.

Highlights

Polymer-inorganic composites were first prepared by Blumstein in 1960s by polymerizing methyl methacrylate in presence of clay and found unusual properties in the composites he prepared
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) pattern of zinc oxide nanoparticles and that of various nanocomposites showed similar peak patterns; it may be assumed that presence of polyaniline did not cause any change in crystal structure of zinc oxide or negligible change which may be ignored. These results indicate that the polyaniline present in nanocomposites is amorphous, supporting the previous reports
FTIR spectra of the samples support the interaction of PANI chains with zinc oxide (ZnO) which imparts the thermal stability to the nanocomposites

Summary

Introduction

Polymer-inorganic composites were first prepared by Blumstein in 1960s by polymerizing methyl methacrylate in presence of clay and found unusual properties in the composites he prepared. In early 1990s, polymerization of caprolactam in presence of montmorillonite clay by Toyota researchers improved several properties. There are three main approaches to prepare polymer-inorganic nanocomposites which include direct mixing of two or more components in a common solvent, in situ polymerization of monomer units in presence of inorganic nanoparticles and melt mixing of polymer with inorganic nanoparticles, in a mixer as suggested by Wu et al [2]. Lei and Su [3] report about many studies on conducting polymer nanocomposites in view to find their applications in advanced techniques. We believe that incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles in PANI may result in new material with useful properties

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Conclusions