Issue 11, 2012
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry

Polypyrrole metacomposites with different carbon nanostructures†

Jiahua Zhu,a   Xi Zhang,a   Neel Haldolaarachchige,b   Qiang Wang,c   Zhiping Luo,d   Jongeun Ryu,e   David P. Young,b   Suying Wei*f  and  Zhanhu Guo*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL), Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical Engineering, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, USA
E-mail: zhanhu.guo@lamar.edu
Tel: (+409) 880–7654

b Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

c Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford, United Kingdom

d Microscopy and Imaging Center, Materials Science and Engineering Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

e Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

f Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, USA
E-mail: suying.wei@lamar.edu
Tel: (+409) 880 7976

Abstract

Polypyrrole (PPy) nanocomposites incorporating different carbon nanostructures (CNS), including graphenes of different sizes, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), have been successfully synthesized using a surface initiated polymerization (SIP) method. The effects of graphene size, loading level and surface functionality on the electrical conductivity and dielectric permittivity of their corresponding nanocomposites have been systematically studied. The electron transportation mechanism has been investigated, which follows a quasi 3-d variable range hopping (VRH) behavior in the nanocomposites. Meanwhile, CNFs and CNTs with the same loading as graphene are also comparatively studied. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results indicate that the PPy coating on one-dimensional carbon nanostructures, such as CNFs and CNTs, is more smooth and uniform than that on the two-dimensional graphenes. PPy/CNTs nanocomposites exhibit the lowest resistivity, followed by the composites incorporating the smaller sized graphene without surfactant. More interestingly, a negative permittivity is found in each composite system, which can be easily controlled by adjusting the nanofiller loading, morphology and surface functionality. TGA results indicate that the thermal stability of the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) is affected by the graphene loading rather than the different nanostructures.

Graphical abstract: Polypyrrole metacomposites with different carbon nanostructures

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2JM14020A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Aug 2011
Accepted
05 Jan 2012
First published
01 Feb 2012

J. Mater. Chem., 2012,22, 4996-5005

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Polypyrrole metacomposites with different carbon nanostructures

J. Zhu, X. Zhang, N. Haldolaarachchige, Q. Wang, Z. Luo, J. Ryu, D. P. Young, S. Wei and Z. Guo, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 4996 DOI: 10.1039/C2JM14020A

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