Dielectric properties of polypyrrole/pillared clay nanocomposites

Dielectric constant ??? and loss factor ??? were measured in intercalated polypyrrole/aluminum pillared montmorillonite (PPy/Al-PMMT) clay nanocomposites in the frequency range 100 Hz to 1 MHz. The PPy/Al-PMMT nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization of pyrrole in aqueous dispersion of varying amounts of (Al-PMMT) clay from 0.2 to 10%, using FeCl₃ · 6H₂O as an oxidant. Formation of the nanocomposite was studied by FTIR and intercalation of PPy in the clay galleries was confirmed by XRD. The nanocomposites exhibited very large values of ??? and ??? at low frequency which decreased with frequency and increased with the clay content in the samples. Electric modulus formalism exhibited a peak in the frequency dependence curves of imaginary part of the electric modulus due to conductivity relaxation process. The peak of conductivity relaxation shifted towards higher frequencies and the magnitude of relaxation decreased with the increase of MMT content in the composites.