Preparation and Characterization of Conducting Polymer Nanocomposites Including Graphene Oxide via In-situ Chemical Polymerization

Nanocomposites including graphene oxide (GO) and conducting polymers (PPy, PANT and PEDOT) were prepared via an in-situ chemical polymerization process, and their characteristic properties depending upon the change of conducting polymer (CP) content were analyzed. A confirmation was made on not only the functional groups formed in GO but also the presence of CP existent in the nanocomposites. The molecular interaction between GO and poly(4-styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA) or CP in the nanocomposites was proposed. With the increase of PEDOT content in the GO-PSS/PEDOT nanocomposite, the estimated value of I-D/I-G regarding the Raman analysis of them was decreased and a major change of their Raman spectra characteristic peaks was observed. In the GO-PSS/PEDOT nanocomposite, PEDOT molecules made an exfoliation of GO-PSSA layers and thus they were intercalated among layers. Such a unique molecular morphology induced the highest electrical conductivity for the GO-PSS/PEDOT nanocomposite among three kinds of nanocomposites prepared in this study. It is also noted that the uniform morphology confirmed in this study helped a thermal stability improvement in the nanocomposite due to the presence of GO or GO-PSSA acting as a thermal barrier.