Materiales nanoestructurados basados en polianilina, nanotubos de carbono y grafeno

Abstract

The synthesis, characterization and processing of composites of a conducting polymer (polyaniline) and nanostructured carbon materials (carbon nanotubes, graphene) was performed. Both types of composites were produced via an in situ polymerization method which enabled a precise control of their morphology at the nanometric scale. Composites of polyaniline with carbon nanotubes (multi-walled) showed a fibrillar morphology and displayed an improved processing in water and aqueous solutions. The stable, homogeneous water dispersions of the composites were the starting point to several kinds of processing that yielded films, depositions, fibers and gels of the materials, and could be used to prepare devices such as supercapacitors and organic solar cells. An hydrophyllic derivative of graphene (graphene oxide) was employed to prepare a polyaniline composite with a laminar morphology. Chemical reduction of this composite resulted in a material with some unexpected properties that could be explained by the formation of a charge-transfer complex between reduced polyaniline (acting as donor) and the reduced graphene oxide sheets (acting as acceptor).