Influence of Compositional Variation on Electrical Properties of PANI/SnO2 Nanocomposites

Conducting polyaniline/tin oxide (PANI/SnO2) nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized by in-situ polymerization technique. The PANI/SnO2 nanocomposites of different compositions were prepared by varying weight percentage of SnO2 nanoparticles such as 10 wt%, 20 wt%, 30 wt%, 40 wt% and 50 wt% into the fixed amount of the aniline monomer. The prepared powder samples were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM). The intensity of diffraction peaks for PANI/SnO2 composites is increases with increasing SnO2 wt%. SEM observation showed that the prepared SnO2 nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed and highly stabilized throughout the macromolecular chain that formed a uniform metal-polymer nanocomposite material. AC electrical conductivity and dielectric properties were studied in the frequency range of 1 KHz-1 MHz. At higher frequencies, the composites exhibit almost zero dielectric loss and maximum value of AC electrical conductivity (sigma(ac)) of 0.21 S/m is found for a concentration of 30 wt% of SnO2 in polyaniline.