synthesis and characterization of polyvinyl alcoholpolypyrrolesilver nanocomposite polymer films

The present paper describes the preparation and characterization of polyvinyl alcohol-polypyrrole-silvernanocomposite (pva-ppy-ag nc) films. the prepared films were conducting, freestanding, flexible,and robust. silver nanoparticles (ag nps) were synthesized from an aqueous solution of silver nitrateusing trisodium citrate as a reductant. the casting solution for the films was prepared by in-situ chemicaloxidative polymerization of pyrrole. this was done in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol and suspension ofpre-synthesized silver nanoparticles. the absorption band at 424 nm in uv-visible spectroscopy of silvernanoparticles confirmed the formation of ag nanoparticles. scanning electron microscopy (sem) studiesrevealed that spherical ag nps were produced with an average size of ~ 25 nm. the morphological analysis ofthe synthesized pva-ppy-ag nanocomposite films was carried out using transmission electron microscopy(tem). it was observed in the tem images that ag nanoparticles were well dispersed and conjugated inthe pva-ppy matrix. the structure of the produced films was studied by fourier transform infrared (ftir)spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction (xrd). x-ray diffraction analysis exhibited the crystalline nature of thesilver nanoparticles with a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. the synthesized pva-ppy-ag nanocompositefilms can be further utilized as potential material for the fabrication of gas sensors.