Concurrent <i>In Situ </i>Formation of Ag / Ag₂S Nanoparticles in Polymer Matrix by Facile Polymer-Inorganic Solid State Reaction

Abstract

We herein report the feasibility of polymer-inorganic solid-state reaction route for simultaneous in situ generation of Ag &amp; Ag2S nanostructures in polymer network wherein an engineering thermoplastic, polyphenylene sulphide (PPS), itself acts as a chalcogen source as well as a stabilizing matrix for the resultant nanoproducts. Typical solid-state reaction was accomplished by simply heating the physical admixture of the two reactants i.e. AgNO3 and PPS by varying molar ratios mainly 1:1, 1:5, 1:15, 1:20, at the crystalline melting temperature (285 °C) of PPS. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by various physico-chemical techniques like X-ray Diffractometry, Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with EDAX, Transmission Electron Microscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy. The prima facie observations suggest the effective formation and subsequent entrapment of mainly nanocrystalline metallic silver (fcc) in PPS matrix for all the molar ratios chosen for the reaction. Additionally, simultaneous occurrence of nanocrystalline Ag2S (monoclinic phase) is also noticed in case of heated admixture of AgNO3: PPS with equimolar ratio. The TEM analysis reveals nanoscale polydispersity (5nm to 70nm) and prevalence of mainly spherical morphological features in all the cases with occasional indications of triangular and hexagonal morphological features depending upon the reaction molar ratio.

Humidity Sensing Performance of <I>In-Situ</I> Fabricated Cu/Cu<SUB>2</SUB>O/Cu<SUB>2</SUB>S-Polymer Nanocomposite via Polyphenylene Sulphide Cyclisation Route

“…With subsequent increase in the polymer content, the Cu 2 O phase increases in comparison to that of Cu which can be confirmed by the difference in the relative intensity of Cu phase at 2 ∼43. 28 and Cu 2 O phase at 2 ∼36.54 . This difference is found to decrease with increase in the polymer content (see Table I).…”

“…Such features appeared to be characteristics of PPS. 28 The sample product corresponding to equimolar ratio reveals 'plate like' morphological features. All the samples confirm the presence of nanoparticles embedded in the polymer matrix.…”