Morphological and structural modifications of chemically-prepared emeraldine polyaniline and zinc oxide in PAni-ZnO composite

In this paper, the characteristic changes on the surface morphology and structure of both emeraldine polyaniline (PAni) and ZnO films in the chemically‐prepared PAni‐ZnO composite are presented. The PAni‐ZnO composite on amorphous glass substrate was fabricated utilizing chemical bath deposition technique. The ZnO films were first synthesized using appropriate amounts of zinc sulphate and ammonium hydroxide. Emeraldine form polyaniline films were then grown on as‐prepared ZnO films using appropriate amounts of aniline hydrochloride and ammonium peroxydisulphate. The formation of zinc hydroxychloride hexagonal‐plate structures in the composite film resulted to morphological and structural modifications of PAni and ZnO composite films. The highly‐crystalline emeraldine polyaniline became amorphous when deposited as part of the composite while increased tensile strain was observed for ZnO in the composite due to stretching‐effect caused by zinc hydroxychloride along the outward‐planar direction. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)