Rapid microwave synthesis of polyaniline–C 60 nanocomposites Marija Gizdavic-Nikolaidis a,b,1 , Joseph Vella a,1 , Graham A. Bowmaker a , Zoran D. Zujovic a,c,d, * a School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand b Faculty of Physical Chemistry, Studentski Trg 12-16, P.O. Box 137, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia c MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand d Centre for NMR, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 2 February 2016 Received in revised form 3 March 2016 Accepted 7 March 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Polyaniline Fullerene Nanocomposites Microwave A B S T R A C T Nanocomposites of C 60 with the conducting polymer polyaniline (PANI) are obtained rapidly using enhanced microwave irradiation. Nanoparticles of C 60 embedded in PANI nanofibres, as well as a coating of larger C 60 clusters with PANI, are confirmed by SEM and TEM. An interaction between the C 60 and PANI is indicated by both UV–vis and FTIR studies. The remarkable yield of 45% is obtained after only 10 min in the presence of 10% of C 60 . ã 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The conducting polymer polyaniline (PANI) has shown great potential for use in organic electronics owing to its tuneable electronic properties [1]. With appropriate doping its properties can be reversibly changed from semi-conducting to conducting [1] while still retaining the manufacturing benefits of a polymer. Studies of PANI composites with the fullerene carbon molecule C 60 have mainly focused on the nature of the interaction between PANI and C 60 in the composite material and as yet have yielded less potential applications [2–7]. The formation of a partial charge- transfer complex between the electron donating imine groups of PANI and the electron withdrawing C 60 has been suggested [8–10], and quantum-mechanical calculations have indicated possible polymerization of aniline on the surface of C 60 [11]. These composites were formed either through the blending of PANI with C 60 in solution [8,10] or mechanically [9,12], or by adding C 60 during polymerization. The latter method of integrating C 60 into the PANI polymer yields a composite with greater conductivity relative to blended products [9,12]. The application of microwave radiation to dramatically enhance the reaction rate and yield in PANI syntheses has previously been reported [13]. There are at least two key factors which enthused inspired this project: (a) the opportunity for the large-scale production of PANI based compounds and (b) the advantages of enhanced microwave synthesis over the classical microwave and chemical syntheses. Thus, the application of microwave radiation to the MW synthesis of a PANI-C 60 would be of great interest. The change in reaction kinetics and the interaction of the components could yield a product with enhanced properties, advancing the potential of PANI-C 60 composites in materials research and development. To that end, this communication reports on the fast polymeri- zation of aniline in the presence of C 60 under the influence of microwave radiation. 2. Experimental 2.1. Method The concentrations and methods used follow those outlined previously for microwave enhanced syntheses [14]. Microwave enhanced synthesis was performed using a single- mode microwave reactor (CEM, model Discover) using a 12 mL vessel with the liquid cooling jacket. A water-bath was used to pass coolant at a controlled temperature of 4  C  0.01  C through the cooling jacket. This was used to maintain a low bulk reaction * Corresponding author at: School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. E-mail address: z.zujovic@auckland.ac.nz (Z.D. Zujovic). 1 These authors contributed equally to this research. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2016.03.009 0379-6779/ ã 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Synthetic Metals 217 (2016) 14–18 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Synthetic Metals journal homepage: www.else vie r.com/locat e/synme t