synthesis and characterization of polyaniline-polystyrene-chitosan/zinc oxide hybrid nanocomposite

A hybrid nanocomposite composed of polyaniline-polystyrene-chitosan/zinc oxide was prepared via a simple in situ polymerization method. the synthesized copolymers were analyzed using fourier transform infrared (ft-ir), and ultraviolet-visible (uv–vis) spectroscopies, thermogravimetric analysis (tga), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (fe-sem), x-ray diffraction, energy dispersive, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. the chemical bonding established between polyaniline-polystyrene and polyaniline-polystyrene-chitosan/zinc oxide, confirmed by ft-ir, is likely to be responsible for the enhanced chemical stability. from sem observation, the ratio of zno nanoparticles to nanocomposite altered the morphology of the hybrids from granular to plate-like structure, which was confirmed by edxs. the thermal property was studied using tg/dta analysis shows the residual weight (tga curves) and its weight derivative (dta curves) of the polyaniline-polystyrene-chitosan/zinc oxide are more stable than chitosan and polyaniline-polystyrene-chitosan. also, the cyclic voltammetry on the obtained hybrid materials revealed that the plate-like structure was more advantages for electrochemical stability. overall, the results show that the introduction of the zno nanoparticles into the polyaniline-polystyrene-chitosan matrix enhanced the thermal and electrode stability.