Polypyrrole/vermiculite nanocomposites via self-assembling and in situ chemical oxidative polymerization

Conductive polypyrrole (PPy) was chemically grafted from the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coated on expanded vermiculite (VMT), resulting in PPy/VMT nanocomposites after VMT particles were surface modified. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that the main peaks of PPy/VMT nanocomposites are similar to the SAM–VMT particles, which reveal that the crystal structure of SAM–VMT is well maintained after the coating process under polymerization conditions and exhibit semi-crystalline behavior. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the thermal stability of PPy/VMT nanocomposites was enhanced and these can be attributed to the retardation effect of amine-functionalized VMT as barriers for the degradation of PPy. The morphology of PPy/VMT nanocomposites showed the sheet structure and encapsulated morphology. The composites possess high electrical conductivity at room temperature, weakly temperature dependence of the conductivity.