Study of alternating current conduction mechanism in polypyrrole-magnesium ferrite hybrid nanocomposite through correlated barrier hopping model

In the present work, both polypyrrole (PPy) and optimized polypyrrole–magnesium ferrite (PPy-MgFe2O4) hybrid nanocomposite were synthesized separately by simple oxidative chemical polymerization method and then structurally characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The FTIR spectrum of the composite showed the presence of characteristic absorption bands of both PPy and MgFe2O4 in the composite confirming interfacial interaction of PPy with MgFe2O4. That this interaction is not affected by crystalline behaviour of predominant MgFe2O4 particles but that MgFe2O4 has embedded in PPy matrix was confirmed by XRD studies. Agglomerated granular spherical morphology of the composite was confirmed by SEM studies. Decrease in AC conductivity of the composite as compared to PPy due to the formation of interfacial heterojunction barrier between p-type PPy and n-type MgFe2O4 was confirmed experimentally and well supported theoretically by calculating binding energy, hopping distance and density of states at Fermi level of PPy and the composite as per CBH model.