Tollen’s reagent assisted synthesis of hollow polyaniline microsphere/Ag nanocomposite and its applications in sugar sensing and electromagnetic shielding

•Hollow polyaniline microsphere (PnHM) exhibits superior properties due to its enhanced surface to volume ratio.•PnHMAg has been used in developing efficient sensor for the detection of sugar.•Presence of Ag nanoparticles enhances the electrical conductivity of PnHMAg resulting in the improvement of electromagnetic interference shielding in both X- and S-band regions.•Such properties could be harnessed effectively for development of devices for commercial as well as national purposes.

The present study is focused on synthesis of polyaniline hollow microspheres (PnHM) nanocomposites of silver (Ag) i.e., PnHMAg by emulsion polymerization of aniline and Tollen’s reagent as a source for Ag nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of PnHMAg indicated presence of silver nanoparticles dispersed on polyaniline surface. The electrical conductivity of PnHMAg is increased by ∼6 times compared to PnHM. Cyclic voltammogram of PnHM in sugar sensing exhibits characteristics redox peaks at ∼0.09 (sugar) and ∼0.53 V (polyaniline). Interestingly, PnHMAg showed a single peak at ∼−0.18 V with increased intensity (∼5 times) indicating its high sugar sensing ability. PnHMAg also exhibits high shielding efficiency of 19.5 dB (11.2 GHz) due to the presence of highly conducting Ag nanoparticles. TEM studies confirmed that Ag nanoparticles are well distributed on PnHM. As a result, a continuous electronic path is developed due to enhanced interconnectivity of PnHM.

Graphical abstractProbable scheme to demonstrate the mechanism of PnHMAg showing enhanced EMI shielding compared to PnHM.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide