Preparation and characterization of conductive polyaniline/cerium dioxide composites

Conductive polyaniline/cerium dioxide (PANI/CeO(2)) composites have been synthesized by in-situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of CeO(2) nanoparticles. The structure and thermal stability of obtained composites were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FTIR), Fourier-transform Raman spectra (FT-Raman), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results showed that PANI and CeO(2) nanoparticles were not simply blended, and a strong interaction existed at the interface of CeO(2) and PANI. In the PANI/CeO(2) composite, the degree crystallinity of PANI increased and diffraction pattern of CeO(2) was amorphous. And that the composites were more thermally stable than that of the pure PANI. Electrical conductivity measurements indicated that the conductivity of PANI/CeO(2) composites was much higher than that of the pure PANI and the maximum conductivity obtained was 11.68 S/cm at 17.5 wt% of CeO(2).