Kouidri, F.Z., Berenguer Betrián, Raúl, Benyoucef, Abdelghani, Morallon, Emilia
Tailoring the properties of polyanilines/SiC nanocomposites by engineering monomer and chain substituents
Journal of Molecular Structure. 2019, 1188: 121-128. doi:10.1016/j.molstruc.2019.03.100
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/91550
DOI: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2019.03.100
ISSN: 0022-2860 (Print)
Abstract: 
Hybridization of nanomaterials constitutes an interesting approach to boost and develop novel properties and applications. In this work, different polyaniline (PANI)-derived polymer-SiC nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized by facile surface-initiated polymerization of aniline (ANI) and/or 4-Anisidine (4ANS) on HCl-functionalized SiC. The obtained materials were characterized by different analytical techniques as well as solubility, conductivity and electrochemical tests. The effect of the nature and combination of the substituents in the polymer was analyzed. XRD; thermogravimetry; and vibrational FTIR spectroscopy revealed effective polymerization and interaction between the polymers and the SiC nanoparticles to form PANI-SiC, poly(ANI-co-4ANS)-SiC and P4ANS-SiC nanocomposites. The presence of electron-donating (para) -OCH3 substituents was found to hinder this interaction and/or to retard the polymerization, decreasing the content and crystallinity of the polymer in the nanocomposite. However, the dispersibility of the nanocomposites in different solvents greatly increased, and the electroactive and optical properties were affected. As a result, the poly(ANI-co-4ANS)-SiC nanocomposite exhibits higher dispersibility, lower band gap, similar conductivity and richer electroactivity than PANI-SiC, and an intermediate polymerization yield. Then, engineering the substituents of polymer chains is demonstrated to be an efficient approach to tailor the properties of (PANI)-derived polymer-SiC nanocomposites.
Keywords:Nanocomposites, Polymer-SiC, Optical properties, Electrochemical properties
Elsevier
info:eu-repo/semantics/article