Surfactant-assisted polypyrrole/titanate composite nanofibers: Morphology, structure and electrical properties

In this work, we demonstrate a simple route to the preparation of bulk quantities of polypyrrole/titanate (PPy/TN) composite nanofibers using cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure-directing agent. Titanate (TN) nanowires and CTAB act as a template for fabrication of the composite nanofibers. The structural characterization shows that the resulting nanocomposite exhibits core-shell nanofiber networks and the average diameter of the nanofibers is around 50–90 nm. The electrical conductivity measurements reveal that the addition of TN nanowires slightly enhances the conductivity of the composite. The ac conductivity follows the power law, which varies with the mass ratio of pyrrole monomer to TN. A possible mechanism is also proposed to interpret the formation of the PPy/TN composite nanofiber networks.