ABSTRACT
YANG TAN, MICHEL B. JOHNSON, and KHASHAYAR GHANDI
Abstract ................................................................................................... 74 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 74 4.2 Experimental .................................................................................. 78 4.3 Instruments ..................................................................................... 79 4.4 Results and Discussion .................................................................. 79 4.5 Conclusions .................................................................................... 93 Acknowledgments ................................................................................... 94 Keywords ................................................................................................ 95 References ............................................................................................... 95
ABSTRACT
Polypyrrole (PPy) based composites and their conjugates to natural polymers are promising materials for applications in photovoltaic devices, photocatalysts, batteries, and supercapacitors. Polypyrrole/TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by chemical oxidative polymerization. The nanocomposites were characterized with Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and other methods. A new method was developed to make composites with a core-shell structure and with TiO2 in the rutile phase for the first time. The thermal stability of the composite was remarkably enhanced compared to PPy. The optical properties of the composite are different with the optical properties of other types of PPy/TiO2 nanocomposites made by chemical polymerization in water: mostly due to the different sizes of the core and shell of TiO2/PPy nanocomposites, UV-vis spectrum shows a shift in the absorption wavelength.
