Tuning electrical and magnetic properties in multifunctional composite materials based on PEDOT:DBS conducting polymer and magnetite nanoparticles

MATÍAS LANÚS MENDEZ ELIZALDE; CARLOS ACHA; M. SERGIO MORENO; P. SOLEDAD ANTONEL

Journal of Materials Chemistry C

Royal Society of Chemistry

Año: 2022

2050-7534

Composites resulting from the combination of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) with an electric conductive matrix have particular magnetic and electric properties. This is due to the competition between different magnetic interactions, and the existence of free electrical carries, that may be tuned by one or by several parameters of the synthesis. Here, we synthetized composite materials by varying the relative content of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): dodecylbenzenesulfonate and Fe3O4 MNP, which present magnetic and electrical conducting properties different from the ones expected from a simple dilution. The materials were characterized in terms of their morphology, structure, crystallinity, composition, electrical conductivity, and magnetic properties. Our results indicate the formation of nanoparticle cluster-like structures giving place to materials with different morphologies. The distance between MNP remains constant while the intercluster separation decreases as PEDOT content decreases. The observed changes on the electrical conductivity result much larger than the expected for the mixture of conducting and insulating materials. The non-trivial overall magnetic behaviour of these hybrid materials are consistent with the modification of the relative intensity of their different magnetic interactions (exchange, RKKY, and dipolar). These last two facts can lay the foundation for building electric and magnetic models that capture the importance of the relevant microscopic parameters.