Surfactant modulated structural modification of hybrid poly(p-phenylenediamine)/titanium dioxide composites and investigation of their functional behaviour

Abstract

Hybrid polymer materials obtained by combining functional polymers with metal oxides are important functional materials having significant technological implications. Herein, we have described surfactant modulated structural manipulation of hybrid poly(p-phenylenediamine)/\(\hbox {TiO}_{2}\) composites using oleic acid as the surfactant molecule and investigated functional utility of the polymer composites. Hybrid polymer composites were synthesized by an oxidative polymerization technique using \(\hbox {H}_{2}\hbox {O}_{2}\) as the oxidant and chloroglycinato(1,10-phenanthroline) copper(II) monohydrate as the catalyst. Structural characterization was performed by using conventional techniques like Fourier-transform infrared, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence, X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis. The effect of structural modification on the functional behaviour of the hybrid polymer composites was investigated and important observations were noted. Structural modification of the hybrid polymer composites significantly improved the mechanical and thermal characteristics. Conductivity values obtained from I–V measurement and band gap calculation indicate that there is scope for using such materials as wide band gap semiconductor materials and also as insulator materials.