Fabrication and characteristics of composite containing HCl-doped polyaniline and Ni nanoparticles

HCl-doped polyaniline powder (HCl-PANI) was synthesized using a polymerization procedure and then Ni nanoparticles were deposited on the HCl-PANI at room temperature by direct current magnetron sputtering. After this process the HCl-PANI–Ni composite was obtained. Ni nanoparticle size ranges from 5 nm to 20 nm in the composite. HCl-PANI structure is not influenced by the Ni nanoparticles. The composite pellet exhibits room temperature ferromagnetism and a conductivity of about 0.66 S/cm. A temperature dependence of the conductivity from 160 K to 290 K reveals that a carrier transport mechanism in the composite is three-dimensional variable range hopping. Thermogravimetric analysis reveals that a weight loss of the HCl-PANI–Ni composite is larger than that of the HCl-PANI for the same heating temperature. The weight loss difference between the composite and the HCl-PANI increases with increasing the temperature.