The Electrochemical Properties of Water‐soluble Polyaniline‐V2O5 Nanocomposites

Abstract

AbstractFlexible, conducting water‐soluble polyaniline/V2O5 nanocomposites: (PAPSA)xV2O5, (PSA)xV2O5, and (PAPSAH)xV2O5 were prepared by simply mixing water soluble polyaniline, poly(aniline‐co‐N‐(4‐sulfophenyl)aniline) (PAPSA), poly(N‐(4‐sulfophenyl)aniline) (PSA), and poly(aniline‐co‐N‐propanesulfonic acid‐aniline) (PAPSAH) with V2O5 wet gel at room temperature. XRD data showed that the interlayer spacing of polyaniline/V2O5 nanocomposites is equal to 11∼13 Å which is slightly bigger than that of pristine V2O5 which has one mole of water molecules in its layer gallery. Depth profile SIMS and Auger analysis revealed that the mixing of water‐soluble polyaniline and V2O5 is very homogeneous although there was no direct evidence showing that alternative layer of water‐soluble polyaniline and V2O5 was formed. Cyclic voltammograms of the nanocomposite films showed two pairs of red‐ox peaks with good reversibility. The redox potentials of the nano composites are different from those of water‐soluble polyaniline or V2O5. The color of the films can be yellowish green, green, brown, orange or purple, depending on the applied potentials and stoichiometry of the composites. The optical density ratio (ΔOD) of the nano composite films (< 4500 Å) is better than that of polymer and V2O5, due to the synergic effect of two electrochromic materials. ΔOD increased as the film thickness increased, and it is greater than 0.3 when the thickness of the composite film is larger than 2000 Å, indicating the potential application in electrochromic devices.