Synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles embedded in polyaniline nanocomposite

Abstract

Conducting polyaniline/silver nanoparticles (PANI-Ag) nanocomposite was synthesized by in-situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of silver nitrate as precursor. Nanocomposite was characterized by UV-VIS, PL, XRD, FTIR, SEM and TGA to study the effect of silver nanoparticles embedded into PANI on the morphology, structure, crystalline and thermal stability of the conducting polyaniline. The optical studies show that the absorption edge of PANI-Ag nanocomposite exhibits the significant blue shift. The photoluminescence studies show that the emission peak shifted towards the blue when compared to that of bulk PANI-Ag. The broadening sharp peaks in the XRD pattern indicate that the synthesized PANI-Ag nanocomposite is nanocrystalline. FTIR reveals the presence of silver metal ions uniformly embedded into PANI. SEM reveals the rod structure surface morphology of PANI-Ag nanocomposite. Thermogravimetric analysis suggests the presence of silver and also an oligomeric component in the nanocomposite. The combination of PANI as a semiconducting polymer with silver as a noble metal may produce hybrid material that behaves as semiconductor at low temperature and as metal at high temperature. © 2013 VBRI Press.