The incorporation of silver nanoparticles into polypyrrole: Conductivity changes

Silver nanoparticles obtained by the electro-exploding wire technique were used to deposit on polypyrrole films prepared electrochemically. The presence of silver nanoparticles deposited was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used to estimate the amount of silver nanoparticles deposited on polypyrrole. The current-voltage characteristics obtained from scanning tunneling microscopy showed remarkable changes in the electrical and the electronic properties of polypyrrole, which was also observed by the conventional two-probe method. The new approaches are the novel process used to produce pure silver naroparticles and the simple and clean electro-deposition without the use of any chemical agents. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.