Developing conducting polymer nanocomposites with carbon nanomaterials for molecular detection and fuel cell applications

Conducting polymers are attractive for chemical sensors because their conductivity and electrochemical activity is extremely sensitive to molecular interactions. The inherent specificity of the conducting polymer based sensors stems from the fact that only certain chemicals can trigger a dramatic conductance change. It can be made more specific by further chemical functionalization of the polymer. The use of conducting polymers (CPs) as low-cost electrocatalysts was also investigated in the early history of conducting polymer research and applications. However, their low environmental stability, low conductivity, and electrochemical activity limit their practical industrial applications. Inspired by the remarkable electronic and superior mechanical properties of carbon nanomaterials, especially carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the relatively new material graphene, tremendous efforts have been made over the past decade to fabricate conducting polymer and CNT composites with an aim of synergistically combining the merits of each individual components. In this thesis, a series of novel conducting polymer nanocomposites with these remarkable carbon nanomaterials will be designed and developed with an ultimate goal of sensitive and selective detection of warfare agents for homeland security and low-cost metal free electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications. Experimental results demonstrate that the composite shows dramatically improved performance compared to each of the individual components. The results obtained from these studies combined with an introduction of the state of the art of the development in this field and future prospects will be presented through 6 chapters of this thesis.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaBy Rishi R. Parajul