Carbon nanotube/polyaniline nanocomposites: Electronic structure, doping level and morphology investigations

• PANI/CNT nanocomposites by interfacial polymerization studied using photoemission and AFM.
• Presence of neutral and charged species was measured by photoemission.
• Incorporation of CNT favors the doping level of polyaniline.
• C1s core level spectra and AFM present clear evidence of organization of the nanocomposites films.

Photoemission and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies have been performed on thin films of polyaniline, carbon nanotubes and nanocomposites made of polyaniline (PANI) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) at different CNT/PANI ratios, in order to characterize their chemical states, as well as to investigate their electronic structure and morphology. Photoemission results show the presence of neutral and charged species in the polymer. The presence of charged species increases with the amount of CNT, indicating that the incorporation of CNT favors the doping level of polyaniline. C1s core level spectra present clear evidence of organization of the nanocomposites films as going from PANI aggregates to more aligned CNT. This observation is corroborated by the AFM results.

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