Issue 31, 2022

Interfacial tension driven adsorption of MnO2 nanoparticles at the liquid/liquid interface to tailor ultra-thin polypyrrole sheets

Abstract

An emerging aspect of research is designing and developing fully tunable metamaterials for various applications with fluid interfaces. Liquid/liquid interface-assisted methods represent an efficient and facile route for synthesizing two-dimensional (2-D) thin films of potential materials. The underlying mechanism behind thin film formation at the liquid/liquid interface involves the preferential adsorption of nano-sized particles at the interface to minimize high interfacial tension. Here, a water/chloroform interface-assisted method is employed for the one-pot synthesis of highly crystalline polypyrrole/manganese dioxide (PPy/MnO2) sheets. The temporal evolution in the dynamic interfacial tension (from 32 mN m−1 to 17 mN m−1) observed in pendant drop tensiometry proved the preferential adsorption of MnO2 atttached PPy oligomers at the water/chloroform interface. An ultra-thin sheet-like morphology and uniform distribution of ∼6 nm highly crystalline MnO2 nanoparticles are evidenced by transmission and atomic force microscopy techniques. The predominance of interfacial polymerization in retaining the electrochemical activity of the PPy/MnO2 sheets is elucidated for the electrochemical detection of nicotine. This study opens a new avenue for the realization of ultra-thin sheets of polymer–nanomaterial hybrids, enabling applications ranging from new classes of sensors to optics.

Graphical abstract: Interfacial tension driven adsorption of MnO2 nanoparticles at the liquid/liquid interface to tailor ultra-thin polypyrrole sheets

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Apr. 2022
Accepted
15 Jūl. 2022
First published
28 Jūl. 2022

Nanoscale, 2022,14, 11197-11209

Interfacial tension driven adsorption of MnO2 nanoparticles at the liquid/liquid interface to tailor ultra-thin polypyrrole sheets

S. K. Chondath, A. P. K. Sreekala, C. Farzeena, S. N. Varanakkottu and M. M. Menamparambath, Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 11197 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR02130G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements