Books on the topic 'Electrical Properties - Nanocomposites'

In this work magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized through the precipitation method from an aqueous ferrous sulfate solution under ultrasound. A 23 factorial design in duplicate was carried out to determine the best synthesis conditions and to obtain the smallest crystallite sizes. Selected conditions were ultrasound frequency of 593 kHz for 40 min in 1.0 mol L-1 NaOH medium. Average crystallite sizes were of the order of 25 nm. The phase obtained was identified by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) as magnetite. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed polydisperse particles with dimensions around 57 nm, while transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed average particle diameters around 29 nm, in the same order of magnitude of the crystallite size determined with Scherrer’s equation. These magnetic nanoparticles were used to obtain nanocomposites with polyaniline (PAni). The material was prepared under exposure to ultraviolet light (UV) or under heating, from dispersions of the nanoparticles in an acidic solution of aniline. Unlike other synthetic routes reported elsewhere, this new route does not utilize any additional oxidizing agent. XRD analysis showed the appearance of a second crystalline phase in all the PAni-Fe3O4 composites, which was indexed as goethite. Furthermore, the crystallite size decreases nearly 50 % with the increase in the synthesis time. This size decrease suggests that the nanoparticles are consumed during the synthesis. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the amount of polyaniline increases with synthesis time. The nanocomposite electric conductivity was around 10-5 S cm-1, nearly one order of magnitude higher than for pure magnetite. Conductivity varied with the amount of PAni in the system, suggesting that the electric properties of the nanocomposites can be tuned according to their composition. Under an external magnetic field the nanocomposites showed hysteresis behavior at room temperature, characteristic of ferromagnetic materials. Saturation magnetization (MS) for pure magnetite was ~ 74 emu g-1. For the PAni-Fe3O4 nanocomposites, MS ranged from ~ 2 to 70 emu g-1, depending on the synthesis conditions. This suggests that composition can also be used to control the magnetic properties of the material.