Electroless formation of conductive polymer–metal nanostructured composites at boundary of two immiscible solvents. Morphology and properties

Formation of polypyrrole (PPy) with metallic inclusions was carried out at the interface between the aqueous phase containing an oxidizer and an organic solution of the monomer. A variety of the polymer–metal composites were obtained in the system. When the oxidizers were silver- and gold salts the obtained material contained from 4 to 9 at.% of metal. In the case of Ag+ oxidant the structure of the metallic silver objects varied and included beads and ultra thin wires covered by polymer film, nanocrystals, micrometer cuboid monocrystals and microplates. Metallic gold practically appeared only in one structure—granules. The granules of Au incorporated into PPy were porous and made of very fine flat crystals of thickness in the nanometer range. The use of copper salts never led to the formation of metallic species in the composite. The influence of selected process parameters such as temperature and concentration of the reactants on the polymerization reaction was investigated. The composites with metallic nanoobjects were found to be better catalysts for the electrooxidation of ascorbic acids compared to pure polypyrrole. SEM, X-ray diffractometry, Raman spectroscopy and voltammetry were used in the investigation.