ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Polyaniline-coated cellulose fibers decorated with silver nanoparticles

Jaroslav Stejskal, Miroslava Trchová, Jana Kovářová, Jan Prokeš, and Mária Omastová

Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic

E-mail: stejskal@imc.cas.cz

Received: 17 May 2007  Revised: 18 July 2007  Accepted: 13 August 2007

Abstract: Cellulose fibers of 20 μm in diameter and aspect ratio of 2 or 10 were coated with protonated polyaniline (PANI) during the oxidation of aniline hydrochloride with ammonium peroxydisulfate in an aqueous medium. The presence of PANI has been proved by FTIR spectroscopy. The conductivity increased from 4.0 × 10⁻¹⁴ S cm⁻¹ to 0.41 S cm⁻¹ after coating the fibers with PANI. The percolation threshold in the mixture of original uncoated and PANI-coated fibers was reduced from 10 mass % PANI to 6 mass % PANI, as the aspect ratio changed from 2 to 10. The subsequent reaction with silver nitrate results in the decoration of PANI-coated cellulose fibers with silver nanoparticles of about 50 nm average size. The content of silver of up to 10.6 mass % was determined as a residue in thermogravimetric analysis. FTIR spectra suggest that the protonated emeraldine coating changed to the pernigraniline form during the latter process and, consequently, the conductivity of the composite was reduced to 4.1 × 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹, despite the presence of silver.

Keywords: cellulose - conducting polymer - conductivity - polyaniline - silver - nanoparticle

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-008-0009-z

Chemical Papers 62 (2) 181–186 (2008)