Preparation and Characterization of Conductive SiO2-Polyaniline Core-Shell Nanoparticles

Recently, polymer-inorganic nanocomposites have attracted great attention as new materials because of their novel mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. In particular, inorganic-polymer core-shell nanoparticles are more promising in such new applications as surface-enhanced Raman scattering, photonic crystals, catalysis, nano-electronic devices, and biochemical sensor. In this study we used 1.2-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane as a coupling agent to synthesize silica-polyaniline core-shell nanoparticles. Preparation and characterization of the core-shell nanoparticles were analyzed and discussed. To evaluate the core-shell effect, the core-shell nanoparticles were incorporated into polyurethane. The nanocomposites containing the core-shell- structure nanoparticle show significant enhancement on electrical and mechanical properties compared to those containing silica nanoparticles.