Surfactant assisted processable organic nanocomposite dispersions of polyaniline–single wall carbon nanotubes

In this paper, we report a surfactant assisted processable organic dispersions of conducting form of polyaniline (PANI) with and without single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). We used and compared the role of two anionic surfactants namely, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (NaDBS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Based on our results, we believe that hydrophobic interactions between surfactant tails with SWNTs and the strong interactions between PANI–surfactant headgroups are very much likely to be responsible for stabilizing this three phase system in the organic solvent. In PANI–SWNT nanocomposites prepared using SDS, electronic like band of PANI is significantly affected as well as localization of the charge carriers is observed using UV–vis spectroscopy compared to nanocomposites prepared using NaDBS. These interactions are reflected in lower conductivity of the PAN–SWNT nanocomposites prepared using SDS indicating NaDBS has better doping effectiveness in PANI–SWNT nanocomposites. This facile route offers the processing of PANI–SWNT from single organic medium and in addition, eliminates the steps of de-doping, dissolution in suitable solvent and re-doping to regain the conductivity of the nanocomposite.