Polypyrrole–titanium(IV) doped iron(III) oxide nanocomposites: Synthesis, characterization with tunable electrical and electrochemical properties

Highlights: ► Synthesis and characterization of polymer nanocomposite based on titanium doped iron(III) oxide. ► Electrical conductivity increased 100 times in composite with respect to polymer. ► Electrochemical capacitance of polymer composites increased with nanooxide content. ► Thermal stability of the polymer enhanced with nano oxide content. -- Abstract: Titanium(IV)-doped synthetic nanostructured iron(III) oxide (NITO) and polypyrrole (PPy) nanocomposites was fabricated by in situ polymerization using FeCl3 as initiator. The polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) and pure NITO were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Föurier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, etc. Thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analyses showed the enhancement of thermal stability of PNCs than the pure polymer. Electrical conductivity of the PNCs had increased significantly from 0.793 × 10−2 S/cm to 0.450 S/cm with respect to the PPy, and that had been explained by 3-dimensional variable range hopping (VRH) conduction mechanisms. In addition, the specific capacitance of PNCs had increased from 147 F/g to 176 F/g with increasing NITO content than that of pure NITO (26 F/g), presumably due to the growing of mesoporous structure with increasing NITO content in PNCs which reduced the charge transfer resistance significantly.