Tuning of colossal dielectric constant in gold-polypyrrole composite nanotubes using in-situ x-ray diffraction techniques

In-situ x-ray diffraction technique has been used to study the growth process of gold incorporated polypyrrole nanotubes that exhibit colossal dielectric constant due to existence of quasi-one-dimensional charge density wave state. These composite nanotubes were formed within nanopores of a polycarbonate membrane by flowing pyrrole monomer from one side and mixture of ferric chloride and chloroauric acid from other side in a sample cell that allows collection of x-ray data during the reaction. The size of the gold nanoparticle embedded in the walls of the nanotubes was found to be dependent on chloroauric acid concentration for nanowires having diameter more than 100 nm. For lower diameter nanotubes the nanoparticle size become independent of chloroauric acid concentration and depends on the diameter of nanotubes only. The result of this study also shows that for 50 nm gold-polypyrrole composite nanotubes obtained with 5.3 mM chloroauric acid gives colossal dielectric constant of about 107. This value remain almost constant over a frequency range from 1Hz to 106 Hz even at 80 K temperature.