New approach for the development of reduced graphene oxide/polyaniline nanocomposites via sacrificial surfactant-stabilized reduced graphene oxide

Authors

T. Bautkinova, A. Sifton, EM. Kutorglo, M. Dendisova, D. Kopecky, P. Ulbrich, P. Mazur, A. Laachachi, and F. Hassouna

Reference

Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, vol. 589, art. no. 124415, 2020

Description

An aggregation of graphene oxide (GO) during its reduction to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) limits its performance in nanocomposites. The use of rGO stabilized by a sacrificial surfactant should overcome this limitation and it yields nanocomposites with enhanced properties. A new, simple and cost-effective approach for the synthesis of polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites based on rGO stabilized by a sacrificial surfactant was developed. Two routes of synthesis, the in situ and ex situ reduction, were compared. The former involved the reduction of GO already coated by PANI, forming rGO/PANI(in) whereas the latter involved the reduction of GO in the presence of a sacrificial surfactant to well-exfoliated rGO sheets followed by polymerization of aniline, forming rGO/PANI(ex). Differences in morphology and physical properties between rGO/PANI(in) and rGO/PANI(ex) correlated with their chemical structure were raised. Accordingly, rGO/PANI(in) exhibited higher thermal stability but lower electrical conductivity (0.01 S.cm(-1)) compared to neat PANI (0.11 S.cm(-1)), while rGO/PANI(ex) demonstrated thermal properties comparable to those of PANI and remarkable electrical conductivity (similar to 280 S.cm(-1)). Mechanistic insights into the interactions between rGO and PANI are proposed.

Link

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2020.124415