Study of Structural, Morphological, Electrical, and Thermal Characteristics of PPy-Fe(ClO4)2 -Au Nanocomposite and its Application in Ammonia Gas Sensing

• Published in: Indian journal of science and technology 2024-12, Vol.17 (46), p.4842-4853
• Main Authors: More, Vinod S, Patil, Minal P, Tandel, Raju P, Ghorude, Tatyarao N, Padhye, Gitesh G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0974-6846; 0974-5645
• DOI: 10.17485/IJST/v17i46.3148

Objectives: The synthesis of Polypyrrole based nanocomposites using chemical techniques and then characterize using various techniques to study the Structural, morphological, and Thermal characteristics of these materials. The main objective of this research is to fabricate room temperature operative NH3 gas sensor. Methods: Turkevich method is used for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles. These Gold nanoparticles are further employed to form polypyrrole-based nanomaterials using the Chemical oxidative polymerization method. These nanocomposites were comprehensively characterized using SEM, TEM, X-ray Diffraction, FTIR, UV-vis Spectroscopy, and TGA. The two-probe approach was used to measure electrical conductivity. Synthesized PPy-Fe(ClO4)2-Au nanocomposite was then applied to fabricate room temperature operated gas sensor that can detect ammonia (NH3) gas at low ppm levels. Findings: The SEM of the PPy based nanoparticle shows its globular morphology with size in 180-250 nm. XRD shows an amorphous nature with some crystalline formation indicating Au presence. FTIR reveals prominent peaks showing significant bonds of PPy. The UV-visible spectra of pure PPy shows a peak at 349 nm while PPy-Fe(ClO4)2 and PPy-Fe(ClO4)2-Au show additional peak at 541 nm and 421 nm. The I-V characteristic of PPy-Fe(ClO4)2-Au shows enhanced conductivity of 30.58 Scm-1 which is higher than pure PPy. Novelty: A novel dopant Iron(II) per chlorate Fe(ClO4)2, was added to the nanoparticles to synthesize PPy-Fe(ClO4)2-Au nanocomposites. Since most of the sensors worked at some elevated temperature, this paper presents low ppm level NH3 gas sensing at room temperature which is the key step for this research work. Keywords: PPy; AuNPs; Polypyrrole; NH3; PPy-AuNPs-Fe(ClO4)2