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In this study, camphorsulphonic acid-doped conducting polyaniline/silk fibroin (Pani/SF) composites were prepared by in-situ polymerisation. The Pani/SF composite fibres were characterised by using Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and digital photographs. Results indicated that the Pani was successfully coated on silk fibroin. The electrical properties of Pani/SF composite fibres were influenced by the extent of loading of aniline monomers. The as-prepared material was studied as a sensing material by observing the change in their electrical conductivity on exposure to ammonia and acetaldehyde, followed by ambient air at room temperature. It was found that the composite fibres showed good reversibility and conductivity decreased on exposure to higher concentration of ammonia and acetaldehyde vapours at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this study, we report first time the electrical properties and photocatalytic activity of HCl doped polyaniline (Pani) and Pani/boron nitride (Pani/BN) nanocomposite prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline using potassium persulfate (K2S2O8) in the presence of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). The prepared Pani and Pani/BN nanocomposite were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, Thermogravimetric analysis, Scanning electron microscope, and Transmission electron microscope. The stability of the Pani/BN nanocomposite in comparison of Pani in terms of the DC electrical conductivity retention was investigated under isothermal and cyclic aging conditions. The Pani/BN nanocomposite in terms of DC electrical conductivity was observed to be comparatively more thermally stable than Pani. The degradation of Methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV-light irradiation were 50 and 56.4%, respectively, over Pani and 65.7 and 71.6%, respectively, over Pani/BN. The results indicated that the extent of degradation of MB and RhB was greater over nanocomposite material than Pani, which may result due to high electron-hole pairs charge separation under UV light. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the electrical properties and photocatalytic activity of polyaniline (Pani) and polyaniline/silk fibroin (Pani/SF) composite. The Pani/SF composite has been synthesized first time by chemical oxidative in-situ polymerization method by using potassium persulphate (K2S2O8) in an acidic medium. Thus prepared Pani and Pani/SF composite were characterized by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The stability in terms of the DC electrical conductivity of Pani/SF composite and Pani was investigated under isothermal and cyclic aging conditions. Results indicated that the electrical properties of the composite were significantly influenced by the loading of SF to Pani and observed to be more thermally stable than those of Pani. As-prepared Pani and Pani/SF composites were studied for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV-light irradiations. The results showed that 91.4% & 85.4% degradation of RhB and MB takes place respectively after 90 min over Pani/SF composite. The decomposition rate of composite was 1.8-2.2 times greater than that of Pani. The improvement of photocatalytic activity of composite may be attributed to the electron-sink function of silk fibroin which increases the optical absorption property and separation of photogenerated charge carriers than Pani alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]