Facile synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotubes/silver nanohybrids coated with polyaniline

Novel composites that consisted of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), and polyaniline (PANI) were prepared via a facile and efficient two-step method. Firstly, the surfaces of MWNTs were decorated with Ag NPs at room temperature and then MWNT/Ag nanohybrids were coated with PANI layers by the in situ polymerization of aniline. The formation and incorporation of Ag NPs and PANI on the surface of MWNTs were confirmed by XRD and FT-IR. The TEM and SEM images revealed that highly dispersed MWNT/Ag/PANI composites had nanotubular composite morphologies with an average diameter of 15–20 nm. The electrical conductivity of the MWNT/Ag/PANI composites was 15.4 S cm−1, which was higher than that of pure PANI and crude MWNTs. Moreover, the cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis of the composite electrodes indicated that the obtained product had high electrochemical activity and good cyclic stability.