Exfoliated MoS2–Polyaniline Nanocomposites: Synthesis and Characterization

Exfoliated MoS2–PANI nanocomposites with varying percentage by weight of exfoliated 2H–MoS2 were synthesized and characterized by several techniques. The characterization techniques used were powder X-ray diffraction, electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient measurements, thermogravimetric analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. An intriguing observation was observed in the conductivity data as several of the nanocomposites that contained 5 to 15% by weight of exfoliated MoS2 yielded higher conductivity than a sample of pure PANI synthesized under the same conditions. Exfoliated 2H–MoS2 has very low conductivity due to the disorder of the system, so this increase was not expected. This may indicate that the presence of MoS2 may improve the conductivity of PANI by altering its doping, or by enhancing PANI ordering; or, that PANI may be stabilizing MoS2 in its 1T zero band gap metallic form, which is higher in conductivity.