SYNTHESIS OF CONDUCTING POLYANILINE NANOCOMPOSITES BY RADIATION DOPING

Electrically conducting polymers have been most widely accomplished using chemical and electrochemical processing techniques. The present article aims at reporting the synthesis of polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films using radiation technique. The PANI nanoparticles were obtained by irradiating solvent casting PVA/aniline hydrochloride (AniHCl) blend films with gamma rays under ambient conditions. The formation of PANI nanoparticles has been seen by the color change from white to dark green following radiation doping. The SEM images exhibit spherical aggregates of PAni nanoparticles about 50-100 nm in diameter randomly distributed in the films. The UV-Visible spectrophotometer measurement revealed that the absorption band at 790 nm increases with dose owing to the formation of PANI with green color that increases with increasing dose. The conductivity measurement shows that the initially electrically insulating PVA/AniHCl blend has been remarkably transformed into the electrically conducting PVA/PANI nanocomposites where the conductivity increases by 5 orders of magnitude after exposure to 50 kGy.