Influence of compositional variation on electrical properties of PANI/SnO{sub 2} nanocomposites

Conducting polyaniline/tin oxide (PANI/SnO{sub 2}) nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized by in-situ polymerization technique. The PANI/SnO{sub 2} nanocomposites of different compositions were prepared by varying weight percentage of SnO{sub 2} nanoparticles such as 10 wt%, 20 wt%, 30 wt%, 40 wt% and 50 wt% into the fixed amount of the aniline monomer. The prepared powder samples were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM). The intensity of diffraction peaks for PANI/SnO{sub 2} composites is increases with increasing SnO{sub 2} wt%. SEM observation showed that the prepared SnO{sub 2} nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed and highly stabilized throughout the macromolecular chain that formed a uniform metal-polymer nanocomposite material. AC electrical conductivity and dielectric properties were studied in the frequency range of 1 KHz -1 MHz. At higher frequencies, the composites exhibit almost zero dielectric loss and maximum value of AC electrical conductivity (σ{sub ac}) of 0.21 S/m is found for a concentration of 30 wt% of SnO{sub 2} in polyaniline.