ИСТИНА

We report the in situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of graphene nanosheets resulting in a composite material of polyaniline (PANI) and graphene which is readily dispersible in N-methylpyrrolidone. The dispersibility of the PANI-graphene composite is a very important property for many applications and further processing of the composite, and cannot be obtained with most reported preparation methods resulting in intractable non-dispersible materials. Thermogravimetric and gravimetric analysis showed that the PANI-graphene composite contains 6 and 13 wt% of graphene respectively which enhances the thermal stability at temperatures below 350°C and increases the electrical conductivity of the composite by two orders of magnitude compared to pristine PANI. The successful incorporation of graphene in the composite material is also confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis of the material indicates that one PANI repeating unit consisting of four benzene rings is entangled to six carbon atoms of graphene. Hence, the properties of the composite such as solubility are mostly determined by PANI and the presence of graphene could therefore not be detected with Raman spectroscopy. The PANI-graphene composite presented here is aimed to be used as an ion-to-electron transducer interface in printable chemical sensors.