Abstract
A direct route to polypyrrole–silica core–shell nanoparticles with diameters in the 150–300 nm range is described to design new nanocomposites, in which the conducting part is wrapped by an external silica shell in order to obtain finally neutral conductive nanoparticles. The nanocomposites are characterized by SEM, FTIR, electrochemistry and thermal gravimetric analysis, demonstrating that the external silica shell actually insulates the conjugated polymer from the outer medium. In a second step, the nanocomposites are coated with an additional PDMS layer. The electrorheological properties of the ink made by dispersion of these final nanoparticles in a low dielectric constant fluid are checked in a dielectrophoretic device, in which the motion of the particles induced by an external electric field can be used to monitor a switch of the light transmission properties with a low voltage threshold.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Azioune A, Pech K, Saoudi B, Chehimi MM, McCarthy GP, Armes SP (1999) Adsorption of human serum albumin onto polypyrrole powder and polypyrrole-silica nanocomposites. Synth Met 102(1–3):1419–1420
Azioune A, Ben Slimane A, Hamou LA, Pleuvy A, Chehimi MM, Perruchot C, Armes SP (2004) Synthesis and characterization of active ester-functionalized polypyrrole-silica nanoparticles: application to the covalent attachment of proteins. Langmuir 20(8):3350–3356
Cha CS, Li CM, Yang HX, Liu PF (1994) Powder microelectrodes. J Electroanal Chem 368:47
Cheng QL, Pavlinek V, Lengalova A, Li CZ, Belza T, Saha P (2006) Electrorheological properties of new mesoporous material with conducting polypyrrole in mesoporous silica. Microporous Mesoporous Mater 94(1–3):193–199
Fang FF, Cho MS, Choi HJ, Yoon SS, Ahn WS (2008) Electrorheological characteristics of conducting polypyrrole/swollen MCM-41 nanocomposite. J Ind Eng Chem 14(1):18–21
Flitton R, Johal J, Maeda S, Armes SP (1995) Synthesis of colloidal dispersions of polypyrrole-silica nanocomposites using stringy silica particles. J Colloid Interface Sci 173(1):135–142
Han MG, Armes SP (2003) Preparation and characterization of polypyrrole-silica colloidal nanocomposites in water-methanol mixtures. J Colloid Interface Sci 262(2):418–427
Hebestreit N, Hofmann J, Rammelt U, Plieth W (2003) Physical and electrochemical characterization of nanocomposites formed from polythiophene and titanium dioxide. Electrochim Acta 48:1779–1788
Jang J, Ha J, Kim S (2007) Fabrication of polyaniline nanoparticles using microemulsion polymerization. Macromol Res 15(2):154–159
Kim YD, Song IC (2002) Electrorheological and dielectric properties of polypyrrole dispersions. J Mater Sci 37(23):5051–5055
Kwon WJ, Suh DH, Chin BD, Yu JW (2008) Preparation of polypyrrole nanoparticles in mixed surfactants system. J Appl Polym Sci 110:1324
Liu Y, Chu Y, Yang LK (2006) Adjusting the inner-structure of polypyrrole nanoparticles through microemulsion polymerization. Mater Chem Phys 98(2–3):304–308
Maeda S, Armes SP (1994) Preparation and characterization of novel polypyrrole-silica colloidal nanocomposites. J Mater Chem 4(6):935–942
Miomandre F, Audebert P, Bonnet JP, Brosseau A, Perriat P, Weisbuch C, Wen W, Sheng P (2008) Silica-polypyrrole core–shell nanocomposites as active materials for dielectrophoretic displays. J Nanosci Nanotechnol 8:1–7
Omastova M, Trchova M, Kovarova K, Stejskal J (2003) Properties and morphology of polypyrrole containing a surfactant. Synth Met 138:447–455
Ravindranath R, Ajikumar PK, Hanafiah NBM, Knoll W, Valiyaveettil S (2006) Synthesis and characterization of luminescent conjugated polymer-silica composite spheres. Chem Mater 18:1213
Skotheim TA, Reynolds JR (2007) Handbook of conducting polymers, 3rd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Vivier V, Cachet-Vivier C, Michel D, Nedelec JY, Yu LT (2002) Voltamperommetric study of chemically made polyaniline powder with cavity microelectrode technique. Synth Met 126:253
Wei C, Zhu YH, Jin Y, Yang XL, Li CZ (2008) Fabrication and characterization of mesoporous TiO2/polypyrrole-based nanocomposite for electrorheological fluid. Mater Res Bull 43(12):3263–3269
Wen W, Weisbuch C, Do Mai P, Lu G, Ge W, Chan CT, Sheng P (2005) Neutral nanoparticle based display. Nanotechnology 16:598–601
Wu SZ, Zeng F, Shen JR (1998) The electrorheological properties of polypyrrole suspensions. Polym J 30(6):451–454
Yan F, Xue G, Zhou MS (2000) Preparation of electrically conducting polypyrrole in oil/water microemulsion. J Appl Polym Sci 77(1):135–140
Yoon DJ, Kim YD (2006) Synthesis and electrorheological behavior of sterically stabilized polypyrrole-silica-methylcellulose nanocomposite suspension. J Colloid Interface Sci 303(2):573–578
Acknowledgments
The UMEC network (CNRS) is acknowledged for providing us the cavity microelectrode. This work was financially supported by the ANR contract “Nanoencre” from the P-NANO program. Fanny Alloteau and Laila Dounas, students from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris (ENSCP) are warmly acknowledged for their participation to this work during their training period in PPSM laboratory.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Miomandre, F., Chandezon, F., Lama, B. et al. Polypyrrole–silica core–shell nanocomposites: a new route towards active materials in dielectrophoretic displays. J Nanopart Res 13, 879–886 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-010-9925-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-010-9925-2