Polyaniline nanocomposites via chemical oxidative polymerization in the presence of functional MCM-48 as in situ dopant

Functional MCM-48 (F-MCM-48), prepared by anchoring the organic sulfonic acid on the surface of the 3D cubic (Ia3d) structural MCM-48, was used as both the inorganic substrate and the in situ dopant for the in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline to obtain the PANI/F-MCM-48 nanocomposite material. The morphology of the resultant composite was characterized by SEM and a raspberry-like morphology was observed. The results of spectral analyses showed that there was a strong interaction between PANI chains and F-MCM-48, and the doping degree of PANI was high. Small-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that the main peaks of the PANI/F-MCM-48 composite was similar to the pristine MCM-48, which revealed that the structure of MCM-48 was well-maintained after the polymerization and the resultant composite is more ordered and uniform than bulk PANI. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) displayed that the thermal stability of the PANI/F-MCM-48 composite was enhanced, which could be attributed to the effect of F-MCM-48 acting as the shelter for the degradation of polyaniline chains. Moreover, the PANI/F-MCM-48 composite was possessed of good conductivity in magnitude up to 10−2 S/cm at room temperature without external additives.