Electrical conductivity of polyaniline photocatalyst
List of Authors
  • Shu-Hui Khor , Sook-Wai Phang

Keyword
  • Polyaniline, Morphology, Electrical conductivity

Abstract
  • Theoretically, the photodegradation efficiency of a photocatalyst can be affected by its own electrical conductivity. Materials with different dopants might possess different electrical conductivities. Therefore, the use of dopants for PANI on electrical conductivity will be investigated on this research. PANI with different morphology including, nanotube, nanosphere, nanofiber, star-micro/nanostructure and leaf micro/nanostructure have been fabricated via template free method by using varied dopants (HA, HCl, and LT) and applied as the photocatalyst. The chemical structures and oxidation states of the prepared photocatalysts were confirmed by their FTIR and UV-Vis spectra. The electrical conductivity measurements of photocatalysts were tested by using four probe point method on PANI pellet while the morphological studies were obtained by using FESEM. Based on the results obtained, NT-PANI that possessed the nanotube morphology exhibited the highest electrical conductivity among all five photocatalyst (1.22 x 10-2 S/cm) leaving behind NSP-PANI (1.16 x 10-2 S/cm), NF-PANI (4.59 x 10-3), S-PANI (5.84 x 10-4 S/cm) and L-PANI (4.57 x 10-4 S/cm). Nanotube is more conductive as the nanostructure has higher surface area than the micro/nanostructure and nanotube possessed longer polymer chain hence it facilitates the electron jumping subsequently enhanced the conductivity of PANI.

Reference
  • 1. Khalid, M., Tumelero, M., Brandt, I., Zoldan, V., Acuña, J., & Pasa, A. (2013). Electrical Conductivity Studies of Polyaniline Nanotubes Doped with Different Sulfonic Acids. Indian Journal Of Materials Science, 2013, 1-7. doi: 10.1155/2013/718304

    2. Srinivas, C. (2012). Synthesis and Characterization of Nano Size Conducting Polyaniline. IOSR Journal Of Applied Physics, 1(5), 12-15. doi: 10.9790/4861-0151215

    3. Massoumi, B., Aali, N., & Jaymand, M. (2015). Novel nanostructured star-shaped polyaniline derivatives and their electrospun nanofibers with gelatin. RSC Advances, 5(130), 107680-107693. doi: 10.1039/c5ra23100k

    4. Suresh, R., Giribabu, K., Manigandan, R., Praveen Kumar, S., Munusamy, S., Muthamizh, S., & Narayanan, V. (2015). Polyaniline Nanorods: Synthesis, Characterization, and Application for the Determination of<i>para</i>-Nitrophenol. Analytical Letters, 49 (2), 269-281. doi: 10.1080/00032719.2015.1067815

    5. Rezaei, S., Bide, Y., & Nabid, M. (2011). A new approach for the synthesis of polyaniline microstructures with a unique tetragonal star-like morphology. Synthetic Metals, 161 (13-14), 1414-1419. doi: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2011.05.011

    6. Cho, S., Kwon, O., You, S., & Jang, J. (2013). Shape-controlled polyaniline chemiresistors for high-performance DMMP sensors: effect of morphologies and charge-transport properties. Journal Of Materials Chemistry A, 1(18), 5679. doi: 10.1039/c3ta01427d

    7. Sahu, K., Rahamn, K., & Kar, A. (2019). Synergic effect of polyaniline and ZnO to enhance the photocatalytic activity of their nanocomposite. Materials Research Express, 6(9), 095304. doi: 10.1088/2053-1591/ab2c5f

    8. Bednarczyk, K., Matysiak, W., Tański, T., Janeczek, H., Schab-Balcerzak, E., & Libera, M. (2021). Effect of polyaniline content and protonating dopants on electroconductive composites. Scientific Reports, 11(1). doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86950-4

    9. Neelgund, G., & Oki, A. (2011). A facile method for the synthesis of polyaniline nanospheres and the effect of doping on their electrical conductivity. Polymer International. doi: 10.1002/pi.3068

    10. Shahabuddin, S., Muhamad Sarih, N., Mohamad, S., & Joon Ching, J. (2016). SrTiO3 Nanocube-Doped Polyaniline Nanocomposites with Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue under Visible Light. Polymers, 8(2), 27. doi: 10.3390/polym8020027

    11. Gul, S., Shah, A., & Bilal, S. (2013). Synthesis and Characterization of Processable Polyaniline Salts. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 439, 012002. doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/ 439/1/012002.