Performance of Polyaniline Nanofibers (PANI NFs) as PANI NFs-Silver (Ag) Nanocomposites (NCs) for Energy Storage and Antibacterial Applications

• Published in: ACS omega 2019-03, Vol.4 (3), p.5741-5749
• Main Authors: Diggikar, Rahul S, Deshmukh, Shamkumar P, Thopate, Tukaram S, Kshirsagar, Santosh R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2470-1343; 2470-1343
• DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b02834

The conductive property of polyaniline nanofibers (PANI NFs) has attracted great attention due to their higher capacitance, high flexibility, low cost, and ease of synthesis. Herewith, it is demonstrated that at room temperature, the template-free synthesized PANI NFs show the properties of PANI NFs–silver nanocomposites (Ag NCs) without a silver precursor with a new physical insight into energy storage devices and antibacterial applications. The diffraction peak at 2θ = 19.1° using X-ray diffraction analysis indicates the silver nature. UV–vis absorption peaks at 408 and 369 nm indicate the silver absorption (HCl-doped). The spectroscopic studies by FTIR, Raman, and NMR indicate that the PANI NFs behave in a similar manner to PANI NFs-Ag NCs with 48.47 S cm–1 conductivity and 570 F g–1 capacitance. Morphological studies by FESEM (size: 50 nm) and HRTEM reveal that the growth of PANI NFs is one-dimensional and more preferable. It also shows higher bacterial inhibition at lower values of minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bacterial concentration.