Electrical and optical properties of hydrogen titanate nanotube/PANI hybrid nanocomposites

Abstract

Hydrogen titanate nanotube (TNT)/polyaniline (PANI) hybrid nanocomposites were made up by hydrothermal method and subsequent in situ polymerization. Various characterization techniques were employed to explore the structure, thermal, electrical, and optical properties of the investigated hybrid nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed typical characteristic of two separate peaks for pure PANI and pristine TNT up to the composition of TNT less than 20 %. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image shows the tubular structure of the prepared TNT with an average diameter of 8–12 nm and length range from 80 to 150 nm. Electrical measurements of TNT/PANI nanocomposites indicated that the dc conductivity decreases upon introduction of TNT. Photoluminescence (PL) properties are found to be tunable with the weight fraction of the TNT mother phase. Moreover, increasing the TNT weight content enhanced the thermal stability of TNT/PANI nanocomposite. Finally, the tunability of the chemical and physical properties of these hybrid nanocomposites offers solutions to low-cost hybrid UV irradiation photodetector.