A study on conductive polymer nanocomposite of polystyrene/polypyrrole/montmorillonite

Abstract

Conductive nanocomposite of polystyrene/polypyrole/montmorillonite was prepared by melt-mixing method. Polystyrene properties improved by adding conductive filler (PPy) and also clay (MMT). This nanocomposite is conductive and the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties also improved. Firstly, the conductive polypyrrole (PPy) was synthesized via the chemical polymerization method. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to determine the functional group and the particle size of PPy. Later, the PPy at different weight ratios namely 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt. % were mixed with polystyrene (PS) and montmorillonite (MMT) to produce conductive nanocomposite. Finally, the nanocomposite was compression moulded into a thin sheet for further characterizations and testing. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the polymer chains were intercalated between the MMT galleries while the thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) had proven that the incorporation of PPy into nanocomposite improved the thermal stability of sample. The tensile test results revealed that by increasing the amount of PPy would enhance the strength and the stiffness of the nanocomposite. Meanwhile, by increasing the weight percentage of PPy, the conductivity values of samples were also increased. The nanocomposite PS/PPy/MMT which was prepared in this work has wide range of applications in solar cells, batteries, diodes, membranes and supercapacitors.