Experimental study on synthesizing TiO2 nanotube/polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites and their thermoelectric and photosensitive property characterization

In this paper, TiO2 nanotube/polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites were made. The thermoelectric and photosensitive properties of the nanocomposites were studied. The effects of processing time, voltage, concentration of F− ions and H3PO4 on the formation of TiO2 nanotubes were investigated. The morphologies of the synthesized nanocomposites were revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The formation of polyaniline was confirmed by both Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The optimum conditions for the formation of well-organized TiO2 nanotubes are at 20 V for 60 min in the electrolyte containing 0.2 M fluorine ions. The highest absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient for the TiO2 nanotube/polyaniline nanocomposites is 124 μV/K at 30 °C. Pure Ti foil does not show photosensitive property, while the TiO2 nanotubes have strong photosensitivity.