Facile synthesis of silver chloride-polyaniline nanocomposites and its photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue

[Display omitted] •Synthesis of AgCl/PANI nanocomposites with varied silver nanoparticle concentrations (2–6% in the PANI matrix) using in situ chemical polymerization.•Characterization of the nanocomposites using various techniques including FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, UV–Vis spectroscopy, TGA, SEM, and four-probe method for structure, thermal stability, surface morphology, and DC electrical conductivity analysis.•Physiochemical interactions observed between AgCl and PANI phases in the nanocomposites through FT-IR analysis.•High thermal stability observed in AgCl/PANI nanocomposites, attributed to improved conformation and compactness in the structure.•Higher DC electrical conductivity measured in AgCl/PANI nanocomposites compared to pure PANI, indicating the influence of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on the conducting properties.•Enhancement in conductivity attributed to factors such as increased particle size, smaller band gap, induced polarons, and fibrous morphology with bridge-like connections, facilitating fast charge transfer. Herein, we report a green and an effective strategy for the synthesis of polyaniline-silver chloride (AgCl@PANI) nanocomposites by using facile in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization method in the presence of as-synthesized silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) for the study of their photocatalytic activity towards the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation. The contents of Ag NPs varied from 2% to 6% during polymerization reaction to get AgCl@PANI nanocomposites. These synthesized polymer nanocomposites were characterized for their structural and optical properties, thermal stability, dc conductivity and photocatalytic activity by FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, UV–Vis spectroscopy, TGA, SEM, standard four probe method and the photodegradation activity of MB, respectively. XRD analysis confirm the successful formation of AgCl@PANI nanocomposites without the presence of additional phases. TGA shows that AgCl@PANI nanocomposites have excellent thermal stability due to the barrier effect of AgCl moieties bounded with in the polymer chain and the strong physiochemical interactions between PANI and AgCl as inferred from FT-IR and UV–vis analysis. Under UV irradiation, the AgCl@PANI nanocomposite, with 4 wt% of Ag NPs (AgCl@PANI-4%), demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity for MB degradation with the photodegradation percentage of ∼ 99 % in 20 min. The experimental findings illustrate that the superior photocatalytic