Synthesis and characterization of surface-functionalized conducting polyaniline-chitosan nanocomposite

We describe in this paper an easy route to the synthesis of a novel surface-functionalized conducting polyaniline-chitosan nanocomposite. A stable colloidal dispersion was prepared when aniline was polymerized in the presence of chitosan as the steric stabilizer. TEM study shows that these surface-functionalized polyaniline-chitosan nanoparticles have rice-grain morphologies. The effect of reaction parameters on the mean size of the polyaniline-chitosan nanoparticles was studied. The steric electrostatic interaction between segments of these two polymers explains the excellent storage stability of the polyaniline-chitosan dispersion. Reaction parameters were optimized in order to get stable polyaniline-chitosan dispersion. The chemical structures of polyaniline-chitosan nanocomposite were characterized. FT-IR spectra of the polyaniline-chitosan nanocomposite show that there exist a certain interaction between polyaniline and chitosan. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra show that chitosan is largely present at the surface of polyaniline-chitosan nanoparticles. The electrical conductivity of the polyaniline-chitosan nanocomposite increases with increasing the amount of polyaniline to a high value of 0.25 S/cm.