Hybrid organic/inorganic conducting and magnetic composites of core-shell type have been prepared by in-situ coating of nickel microparticles with polypyrrole. Three series of syntheses have been made. In the first, pyrrole was oxidised with ammonium peroxydisulfate in water in the presence of various amounts of nickel and the composites contained up to 83 wt% of this metal. The second series used 0.1 M sulfuric acid as a reaction medium. Finally, the composites with polypyrrole nanotubes were prepared in water in the presence of structure-guiding methyl orange dye. The nanotubes have always been accompanied by the globular morphology. FTIR and Raman spectroscopies confirmed the formation of polypyrrole. The resistivity of composite powders of the order of tens to hundreds Ω cm was monitored as a function of pressure up to 10 MPa. The resistivity of composites slightly increased with increasing content of nickel. This apparent paradox is explained by the coating of nickel particles with polypyrrole, which prevents their contact and subsequent generation of metallic conducting pathways. Electrical properties were practically independent of the way of composite preparation or nickel content and were controlled by the polypyrrole phase. On the contrary, magnetic properties were determined exclusively by nickel content. The composites were used as a solid phase to prepare a magnetorheological fluid. The test showed better performance when compared with a different nickel system reported earlier.
Keywords: conductivity; hybrid composites; magnetization; magnetorheology; nickel microparticles; polypyrrole; resistivity.