Enhanced conductivity and thermal stability of conductive polyaniline/graphene composite synthesized by in situ chemical oxidation polymerization with sodium dodecyl sulfate

• High conductivity and thermal stability of PANI/graphene composite were synthesized.
• XPS data showed that the fabricated composites are in the doped state.
• Conductivities of composites synthesized with SDS are higher than that without SDS.

The polyaniline (PANI)/graphene composites have been successfully synthesized by in situ chemical oxidation polymerization using various concentrations of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution. FESEM, FTIR, UV–Vis, TGA and XPS were used to characterize their structure and properties. These results of FTIR, UV–Vis and XPS reveal that the fabricated PANI/graphene composites are in the doped state. With the addition of SDS, the thermal stability of PANI/graphene composites can be enhanced about 6–14 °C. The conductivities of PANI/graphene composites are strongly dependent on the content of SDS. Maximum conductivity of PANI/graphene composite (90.3 S/cm) can be obtained by adding 250 mg/ml SDS, which is about two times of magnitude higher than that of PANI/graphene composites without SDS. These data demonstrate the addition of SDS served as a dopant can be incorporated to affect the π–π* transition of the PANI structure, thus improve the conductivity of fabricated PANI/graphene composites.

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