DC conductivity of Gamma-irradiated CuO doped PANI nanocomposites

Abstract

In the present study, CuO doped PANI nanocomposites were irradiated by Gamma (?) radiation at dose of 8.5kGy. The dc conductivity of PANI and PANI/CuO nanocomposites were studied before and after ?-irradiation. The DC conductivity of the nanocomposites increased and it was ascribed to the creation of vacancies. The Arrhenius plots revealed the decrease in the activation energy from 0.34 eV to 0.31eV for the pure PANI while for the doped ones it has decreased to 0.12 eV and it is ascribed to the creation of vacancies. The conductivity values with increase in weight percentage of CuO in Polyaniline were found to be increased. It is attributed due to extended chain length of Polyaniline which facilitate the hopping of charge carriers. © 2019 Author(s).