Synthesis, nanostructure evaluation and tunable anomalous 3D hopping transport of manganese ferrite encapsulated poly[3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene] decorated graphene layer

Abstract

A straightforward novel synthetic approach of manganese ferrite encapsulated poly[3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene] nanocomposite decorated on a graphene layer (NIPG) is engineered assisted by dodecyl benzene sulphonic acid as surfactant. NIPG is characterized by Raman, TG, SEM, EDX, AFM, TEM etc. The temperature-induced (50 to 300 K) I–V characteristics and conductivity are scrutinized for NIPG and the structure–property relationship for electrical transport is also demonstrated. Varying loading of manganese ferrite nanoparticle and graphene significantly improve the order of conductivity even in a low temperature regime due to development of charge carriers such as polaron, bipolaron etc. in the band structure. An anomalous 3D Mott variable range hopping mechanism provides a complete framework to comprehend transport in NIPG.