In situ synthesis of PEDOT:PSS@AgNPs nanocomposites

•An improved in situ synthesis of PEDOT:PSS@AgNPs nanocomposites was reported.•The as-prepared nanocomposites showed higher stability and conductivity.•New corresponding mechanism was proposed.

This paper reported an improved in situ synthesis of PEDOT:PSS@AgNPs hybrid through simultaneous oxidation-reduction reaction between AgNO3 and EDOT at room temperature to achieve a hierarchical structure with excellent performance. Analysis of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, along with X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis spectra, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were applied to study the microstructure and effects of synthesis parameter on morphology of the nanocomposites. Especially, we studied the order of adding acid during the synthesis process, the introduction of nitric acid at the end of synthesis process resulted in high stability and conductivity. Our finding suggests that the pH value plays a key role in morphology formation of the PEDOT:PSS@AgNPs hybrid. The corresponding mechanism was then proposed and discussed.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (144KB)Download full-size image