Novel formation mechanism of Ag/PANI/PVP core-shell nanocomposites

Abstract

Recently, polymer-inorganic nanocomposites core shells have attracted great attention as new materials because of their novel mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. In this article, we report a simultaneous synthesis of polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles and Silver (Ag) nanoparticles to form Ag/PANI nanocomposite core-shell embedded in polyvinilpirrolidone (PVP) by using hybrid chemical and gamma-irradiation oxidation process of aniline and reduction of Ag ions, respectively in the presence of dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid (DBSA). The mechanism of formation of Ag/PANI/PVP core-shell is proposed in this article. In addition, the effects of gamma-dose and Ag ions concentration on structural, and optical, properties of the nanocomposites PVP/PANI/Ag core-shell were carefully examined. The structural and morphological studies show the presence of PANI with regular granular nanostructure as a shell with a diameter of 20 nm and Ag nanoparticles with spherical shape as a core and diameter less than 10 nm. The average particle size of my modified Ag/PANI nanoparticles decreased with increasing dose and decreasing of precursor concentration due to increase of nucleation process over aggregation process during gamma irradiation. The UV–Visible Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and the TEM showed appreciated result of formation Ag/PANI which is going to be discussed in current studies.