Silver Doped Polyaniline-Graphene Based Barium Ferrite Composite as Humidity Sensor and Photocatalyst

Abstract

In this work, the response of humidity sensing and dielectric properties of PANI/Ag/graphene/BaFe12O19 (PAGB) composite prepared by chemical interfacial oxidative polymerization method using the ammonium peroxydisulfate as an oxidant is presented. The synthesized PAGB composite was characterized by using FT-IR, XRD, SEM and EDAX techniques. The measured dielectric constant and dielectric tangent loss values were found to decrease with increase in logarithmic frequency. The electrical resistance of the composite was also found to decrease from 2500 MΩ to 7 MΩ, on exposure to a wide range of relative humidity (RH) varying between 10% and 97% RH. This observed decrease is due to capillary condensation of water molecules which cause the changes in electrical conductivity of composite. The synthesized PAGB-50% composite displayed a high sensitivity at low humidity ranging from 20% to 60% RH. The composite has been proved to be a better candidate in the design of humidity sensors. In addition, PAGB composite exhibited efficiency towards the degradation of organic anionic dye, acid orange-8, with high potential of reusability.