PANI/SnO₂ nanoparticle, FTO/PET and Al/PET as hybrid nanocomposite soft electrodes synthesized by sol–gel, spray pyrolysis and thermal vacuum evaporation methods

Abstract

In this study, polyaniline (PANI)/SnO₂, and polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA)/PANI/SnO₂ nanocomposite as polymer hybrid electrodes were synthesized from tin chloride precursor and PANI/PVA polymer by sol–gel solution method. Also, for comparison, the SnO₂:F (transparent conductive oxide, FTO) and aluminium (Al) on PET substrate as metallic flexible electrodes were deposited by thermal vacuum evaporation and spray pyrolysis methods. Two different molar concentrations were used to synthesize PANI/SnO₂ conductive electrodes. The conductive polymer nanocomposites and polymeric electrodes were characterized by XRD analysis, FE-SEM imaging, UV–Vis and FTIR spectroscopy. In the synthesized PANI/SnO₂ nanocomposite with a larger amount of SnO₂ solution (15 ml), the sharp peaks of PANI are completely removed. The XRD results for FTO/PET showed that at T = 200°C, the amorphous spectrum decreased sharply due to a decrease in the PET peak. Also, the peaks of SnO₂ with the tetragonal and cubic structures were observed with the preferred direction (110). FE-SEM images of FTO thin films deposited on the PET polymer substrate at T = 200°C showed that the flat plates formed by bonding of SnO₂ nanoparticles formed on the polymer substrate. Also, the optical bandgap of the PANI/SnO₂ nanocomposite showed that with increasing the volume of SnO₂ solution, the amount of energy gap increases. The results of FTIR spectroscopy showed that with increasing SnO₂, there is no difference in the type of factor group and only affects the intensity of the peaks and leads to a little shift of the peaks to the modes of pure polyaniline.