One-step synthesis of PANI/Mn3O4 nanocomposites and evaluation of their electrochemical properties

In this paper, we have developed a simple, facile, and efficient approach to synthesize polyaniline/Mn₃O₄ (PANI/Mn₃O₄) nanocomposites using aniline as a reducer in the presence of KMnO₄ without any additives or templates. The morphology of the composites is characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results demonstrate that the tetrahedral Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles have uniform sizes and are finely dispersed in the PANI matrix. The crystallinity and chemical constituents of the composites are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-vis spectrophotometry. Moreover, cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements are used to characterize the electrochemical properties of PANI/Mn₃O₄ nanocomposites. The developed materials give a pair of redox peaks and have better operation stability, which indicates that the composites show distinct electrochemical performance. So the PANI/Mn₃O₄ nanocomposites would have potential applications in bioanalysis, biodetection and so on.