Influence of Silver Oxide Nanoparticles in the Enhancement of Electrochemical Properties of Binary Polymer Nanocomposite PTh-nAg2O

Abstract

Abstract In this study, a chemical oxidation polymerization method was used to create polythiophene. A binary polymer nanocomposite (PTh-nAg2O) was prepared by mechanically mixing polythiophene with silver oxide nanopowder. The Functional groups, bandgap energy, morphology and elemental composition of the sample were analyzed using FTIR, UV-Vis, SEM and EDX, respectively. At room temperature, the A.C. electrical conductivity was measured using a two-probe experimental setup in with a frequency range of 1 kHz to 10 MHz. Compared to polymer, the conductivity of the binary polymer nanocomposites improved by two orders of magnitude. Electrochemical experiments revealed that the binary polymer nanocomposite PTh-nAg2O has a maximum specific capacitance of 725 F/g at 10 mV/s. The EIS measurements revealed Nyquist plots, indicating that the polymer nanocomposite exhibits ideal capacitive behaviour.