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Natural phyllosilicate montmorillonite (MMT) was intercalated by electrically conducting polymer polypyrrole in order to obtain nanocomposites with enhanced electrical conductivity and stability in comparison with pure polypyrrole (PPYR). Samples in powder form were prepared via oxidative polymerization of pyrrole in aqueous solution using FeCl3 as oxidizing agent. Two nanocomposites MMT/PPYR_1 and MMT/PPYR_2 containing 32 wt.% and 45 wt.% of PPYR, respectively, were prepared and characterized. Composition of the samples was studied using elemental analysis and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and amount of PPYR in each nanocomposite was calculated from results of thermogravimetric analyses. Intercalation rate was monitored by X-ray powder diffraction. Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize the polypyrrole in the samples. Electrical measurements performed over 700 days revealed the course of changes in conductivity. Comparison of conductivities of fresh samples showed enhancement of the conductivity and its preservation in the case of nanocomposites. The enhancement was observed throughout the whole testing period, the nanocomposites constantly exhibited higher conductivity compared to PPYR.
Keywords: Polypyrrole, montmorillonite, intercalation, conductivity, stability© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.