Synthesizing Conducting Poly(Aniline-co-Aminoacetophenone) Nanocom-posites based on Polyhydroxy Iron Cation–modified Clay

Conductive clay–polymer nanocomposites were prepared via the in situ polymerization of aminoacetophenone and/or aniline monomers (at initial “aminoacetophenone:aniline”) in the presence of polyhydroxy iron cation–modified montmorillonite (MMT-PIC). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis demonstrated the characteristic bands of the MMT-PIC polymers/copolymers. The morphological properties analyzed and imaged through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron mi-croscopy, respectively, displayed an increasing interlayer distance with the mass loading of PIC and poly(aminoacetophenone-co-aniline) (poly(AAP-co-ANI)), affording intercalated nanocomposites. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements revealed that the clay experienced a cation ex-change of sodium by the PIC, and poly(AAP-co-ANI) was present in large amounts on the nanocom-posite surface. The electrical conductivity of the obtained nanocomposites was 5.760 × 10⁻⁵ Scm⁻¹. Moreover, the electrochemical behavior of the polymers extracted from the nanocomposites was stud-ied via cyclic voltammetry; the redox processes indicated that the polymerization into activated car-bon produced electroactive polymers.