Fabrication and characterization of core/shell structured TiO2/polyaniline nanocomposite

Sitao Yang; Yoshie Ishikawa; Hiroshi Itoh; Qi Feng

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2011.01.078

Fabrication and characterization of core/shell structured TiO2/polyaniline nanocomposite

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2011 Apr 15;356(2):734-40. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2011.01.078. Epub 2011 Feb 1.

Authors

Sitao Yang¹, Yoshie Ishikawa, Hiroshi Itoh, Qi Feng

Affiliation

¹ Department of Advanced Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Kagawa University, Hayashi-cho, Takamatsu-shi, Japan.

PMID: 21329938
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2011.01.078

Abstract

A novel core/shell structured TiO(2)/polyaniline nanocomposite was fabricated by grafting aniline on aminobenzoate monolayer that is chemically adsorbed on the TiO(2) nanocrystal surface. The formation and nanostructure of the nanocomposite were investigated by FT-IR and UV-Vis spectra, TEM, FE-SEM, and TG-DTA analysis. Adsorption of aminobenzoate on the TiO(2) surface is an effective method to obtain the uniform nanocomposite. The thickness of polyaniline layer coating on the TiO(2) nanocrystal surface can be controlled in a range of 2-5 nm by this method. A photoelectrochemical study was carried out on the TiO(2)/polyaniline nanocomposite, and found that polyaniline in the nanocomposite acted as a visible-light sensitizer in a photoelectrochemical reaction. The sensitization effect increased with increasing binding strength between polyaniline and TiO(2). A dye-sensitized solar cell with a short circuit current density of 0.19 mA/cm(2) and an open circuit voltage of 0.35 V was fabricated by using the TiO(2)/polyaniline nanocomposite film as a sensitized electrode.