A comparative study on surfactant cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide modified clay‐based poly(p‐anisidine) nanocomposites: Synthesis, characterization, optical and electrochemical properties

Abstract The preparation of hybrid materials, namely poly(p‐anisidine)@Clay (poly(pAnis)@Clay) and poly(p‐anisidine)@cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide‐Clay (poly(pAnis)@CTAB‐Clay), prepared by oxidative polymerization process is presented. The formation of nanomaterials has been confirmed by XRF, XPS, FT‐IR, and UV–Vis spectroscopy. Interestingly, the study of the optical band gap energy (E_g) evince lowest value of 3.22 eV for poly(pAnis)@CTAB‐Clay compared to poly(pAnis)@Clay with 3.26 eV. XRD results demonstrate that the intercalation of the poly(pAnis) into the Clay was confirmed by the increased interlayer spacing, the exfoliation and intercalation forms were affirmed in the TEM images. In addition, the electrochemical behavior indicates that the prepared nanocomposites are electroactive. These results are heartening in respect with the objective to utilize them in the field of technology and research related to the photovoltaics application.