In situ self-organization of carbon black–polyaniline composites from nanospheres to nanorods: Synthesis, morphology, structure and electrical conductivity

Nanostructured composites of polyaniline (PANI) with carbon black (CB) were synthesized by an in situ self-organization process. The synthesis is based on the polymerization of aniline in a micellar solution of p-toluenesulfonic acid (TSA) with different weight percentages of CB using ammonium peroxydisulfate (APS) as the oxidizing agent. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–vis spectroscopy, and the four-probe meter were used to study the morphological, structural, thermal, and electrical properties of CB–PANI nanocomposites. The results demonstrate that the morphology, thermal stability, and electrical conductivity of the nanocomposites were significantly influenced by the content of CB. SEM results reveal that there was a transition in morphology from composite nanospheres to one-dimensional (1D) composite long nanorods with an increase of CB content. XRD and UV–vis spectra results revealed that there was an increase in the crystallinity and a shift of quinoid transition bands towards lower wavelengths as the amount of CB in the composite increased. The mechanism for the formation of nanostructured composites was explained on the basis of the self-organization of micelles. CB–PANI nanocomposites with a maximum electrical conductivity of 1.38 S/cm were obtained; this is at least three orders of magnitude higher than that of pristine PANI.