Polyaniline‐Wrapped ZnO Nanorod Composite Films on Diazonium‐Modified Flexible Plastic Substrates

Abstract

Vertically aligned core/shell‐like polyaniline‐wrapped ZnO nanorod composite films are prepared on diazonium‐modified biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) sheets, in two main steps. (i) The BOPET substrate is modified by grafting of 4‐aminobenzenoic groups from the in situ generated diazonium compound; (ii) ZnO nanorod/polyaniline composite film is grown on the substrates by wet chemical route followed by the preparation of polyaniline (PANI) by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline on the immobilized ZnO nanorods. Scanning electron microscopy images reveal the vertical growth and homogeneous distribution of the ZnO nanorods and their nanocomposites on the diazonium modified substrates. In contrast, the ZnO and PANI‐coated ZnO nanorods are randomly distributed on pristine BOPET. X‐ray photoelectron spectra permit to characterize the chemical nature of the aryl and the nano­composite adlayers. X‐ray diffraction analysis results indicate that ZnO nanorods retain their wurtzite structure within the nanocomposite coating. Fourier‐transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman indicate the presence of interaction between ZnO nanorods and PANI chains. The ZnO/PANI‐coated diazonium‐modified BOPET sheets exhibit excellent mechanical flexibility with electroconductive characteristics even in the highly bent state. This work highlights the efficiency of the interfacial chemistry of aryl diazonium salts in the preparation of nanocomposite films with outstanding morphology, adhesion, and physical properties even under mechanical stress.

High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions

“…The ZnO grafting procedure was performed in three steps by the low temperature method (Mekki et al [47], Pacholski et al [60]; Chander and Raychaudhuri [61]): (i) synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles from zinc acetate [Zn(CH3COO)2] and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), (ii) deposition of these nanoparticles on the surface and (iii) the vertical growth of the ZnO nanorods.…”

“…It is a semiconductor; its wurtzite structure has a wide band gap (Eg = 3.37 eV at 300 K) and a large exciton binding energy (60 meV) [38,39]; it has excellent biocompatibility, good chemical/thermal stability, mixed chemical bonds (covalent/ionic) [37], and it excellent properties allow it to be used in many applications as a nanomaterial, including in Gratzël cells [40], varistors [41], optical waveguides [42] and in many optoelectronic devices [38,43]. In addition to these applications, ZnO is widely used in the field of sensors, i.e., gas and heavy metal ion sensors [37,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

“…ZnO thin films are prepared by many techniques such as chemical vapor deposition [51], spray pyrolysis [52], DC-sputtering [53], pulsed laser deposition [54], radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering [55], pulsed laser deposition [56], electro-deposition [57] and sol-gel-dip-coating [58]. The low temperature chemical method [59][60][61] investigated herein is one of the most used techniques [47,53,[59][60][61] for the preparation of thin films of ZnO due to its simplicity and operation at low temperatures. This method is carried out in three steps, (i): synthesis of ZnO NPs, (ii): deposition of NPs by spin-coating on gold electrodes, and (iii): growth of ZnO NRs) and rests on the use of ZnO NPs as a seed layer to nucleate the growth process of ZnO NRs.…”

Zinc Oxide Nanorods Wrapped with Ion-Imprinted Polypyrrole Polymer for Picomolar Selective and Electrochemical Detection of Mercury II Ions

“…A two-step process has been followed to grow ZnO nanorods from ZnO seed particles at low temperature [8].…”

Design of Novel Electrochemical Sensors for the Selective Detection of Glyphosate

“…ZnO nanords were prepared as follow [7]: first, 75mM of zinc acetate were mixed homogenously and stirred during 6h at 75°C with 100mM of NaOH in 75mL of ethanol to obtain ZnO nanoparticles which were deposited by spin coating on Gold (ITO) surfaces modified by diazonium salts. The further growth step was carried out by immersing the electrodes in a beaker which contains 500mL of water, 30mM of zinc nitrate hexahydrate and 30mMof hexamethylenetetramine (HMT).…”