Thermal stability of HCl-doped-polyaniline and TiO _2 nanoparticles-based nanocomposites

摘要

Electrically conductive HCl doped polyaniline (Pani): titanium dioxide (TiO _2) nanocomposites thin films were prepared by in-situ oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of different amounts of TiO _2 nanoparticles. Later film casting was done using N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent. The formation of Pani: TiO _2 nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The stability of the nanocomposites in terms of direct-current electrical conductivity retention was studied in air by isothermal and cyclic techniques. The films of Pani: TiO _2 nanocomposites were observed thermally more stable under ambient environmental conditions than pure polyaniline film. The stability was seen to be highly dependent on the content of TiO _2 nanoparticles in the nanocomposite films. Due to their high stability, such type of nanocomposites can find place as a replacement material for pure polyaniline in electrical and electronic devices.