One-pot synthesis of polyaniline/Fe3O4 nanocomposite in ionicliquid: electrical conductivity and magnetic studies

One-pot synthesis of polyaniline/Fe3O4 nanocomposite in 1-methyl-3-alkylcarboxylic acid imidazolium chloride ([CMMIm]Cl) ionic liquid (IL) was introduced for the first time in this work. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), four probes method and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were used to explore the influence of IL on the structure, conductivity and magnetic properties of polyaniline/Fe3O4 composite. Compared with Fe3O4 particles prepared in water, the results show that Fe3O4 particles prepare in imidazolium-based ionic liquid were more regular in shape and dispersed uniformly. So the Fe3O4 nanoparticles prepared in IL can easier serve as cores to form the polyaniline/Fe3O4 nanocomposite via in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline molecule. The saturation magnetization of polyaniline/Fe3O4 nanocomposite prepared in ionic liquid shows about 2 times higher than polyaniline/Fe3O4 composite prepared in water. And the conductivities of PANI/Fe3O4 composite prepared in IL decreased and the saturated magnetization increased with the increasing amount of Fe3O4.