Fabrication and study of structural, optical and electrical properties of UV curable conductive polyurethane acrylate films containing polyaniline-Co3O4 nanocomposites

this study, novel UV curable conductive nanocomposites containing urethane acrylate (UA) and polyaniline (PANi)-Co3O4 nanocomposites were fabricated. At first, PANi-Co3O4 nanocomposites have been synthesized with different molar ratios of aniline: Co3O4 nanoparticles by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization method of aniline using ammonium persulphate as an oxidizing agent. Afterward, PANi-Co3O4 nanocomposites were dispersed in UA matrix and cured by UV irradiation. Structural, optical properties, electrical conductivity and morphological characteristics of the nonocomposites were analyzed by FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy, electrical conductivity measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. FT-IR, UV–VIS spectra offered the information about chemical structure of the products. The SEM images of the PANi-Co3O4 nanocomposites showed uniform distribution of Co3O4 nanoparticles in PANi matrix. Also SEM images of the PUA-PANi-Co3O4 nanocomposites films showed distribution PANi-Co3O4 nanocomposites in PUA matrix. Electrical conductivity measurements of PANi-Co3O4 nanocomposites revealed that the conductivity of PANi decreased with adding Co3O4 nanoparticles in contrast to the conductivity of PUA which increased with adding PANi-Co3O4.