Structural, thermal, and novel magnetic characteristics of e-beam irradiated PANI/Bi2Te3 composites for tunable applications

Recently, there has been a growing interest in synthesizing new materials with unique physical properties. PANI/Bi ₂Te ₃ composites have attracted considerable attention due to the distinctive characteristics of the conductive polymer and semiconductor material. PANI/Bi ₂Te ₃ composites were prepared and irradiated with 100 KGy electrons from the electron beam accelerator. After the exposure to the radiation and increasing Bi ₂Te ₃ concentration, XRD shows an increase in the unit cell volume and the inter-chain distances where the grains were decreased. Besides TEM, SEM provided the topographic images and the nano-crystal size on the surface and showed the accumulation of the particles of the obtained materials. TGA demonstrates the degradation behavior compositions throughout the heating of the samples. Unexpected ferromagnetic behavior was achieved for the highest ratio of (PANI) _0.3(Bi ₂Te ₃) _0.7 , confirmed by VSM and ESR. The ferromagnetic behavior was achieved without introducing any magnetic dopants, making these materials applicable in the future in magnetism.