Effect of fabrication technique on microstructure and electrical conductivity of polyaniline-TiO2-PVA composite material

The aim of this workis to study the microstructure and D.C electrical conductivity of polyaniline-TiO2-poly-vinyl alcohol polymeric composite material synthesized by two methods. The first method of synthesis involved mixing of 40 wt% blendedpowders of polyaniline and TiO2 micro particles in aqueous solution of PVA and the second method used ‘in situ’ deposition technique in which nano particle sized fine grade anatase TiO2 powder (approximately 50 nm average particle size) was placed in the polymerization reaction mixture of aniline, which resulted in polyaniline being deposited on the surface of nano-TiO2 particles forming a core-shell structure. 40 wt% of this composite polymer was then directly blendedwith aqueous solution of poly vinyl-alcohol, resulting in composite polymer of polyaniline-TiO2-poly-vinyl alcohol. The microstructural studies and electrical conductivity results shows that the second method of fabrication not only gives continuous fibrous structure to the conducting polymer without any agglomeration of TiO2, whereas in first method agglomeration of TiO2 results in conducting and non-conducting zone. It gives films with higher D.C electrical conductivity, in comparison to first method, which increases with increasing voltage.