Coating of multiwalled carbon nanotubes with polymer nanospheres through microemulsion polymerization

We report a simple and noncovalent method for coating multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with polyaniline (PANI) nanospheres using a microemulsion polymerization method. In this method, aniline polymerization is performed with MWCNTs in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), which serves as both a surfactant and a dopant. Morphological, structural, thermal, and electrical properties of MWCNT–PANI nanocomposites were analyzed. The TEM results of the nanocomposites prepared with surfactant reveal that 30–50-nm-diameter PANI nanospheres were coated on the surface of the MWCNTs. Composites prepared without surfactant were found to be in core–sheath-type cable structures. The conductivities of the nanocomposites synthesized through microemulsion polymerization were found to be one order of magnitude higher than both the conductivities of pure PANI and the composites prepared via in situ chemical polymerization without an assisting SDS surfactant. The mechanism for the formation of nanostructured composites is presented.