Dopant size dependent variable range hopping conduction in polyaniline nanorods

The present work investigates the electrical transport and dielectric relaxation of polyaniline (PAni) nanorods doped with organic camphorsulfonic acid (CSA) and inorganic hydrochloric acid (HCl) synthesized by interfacial polymerization technique. High resolution transmission electron micrographs (HRTEM) depict that initially spherical nuclei directionally grow into nanorods and CSA doped PAni produces more uniform and aligned structures. The electrical transport studies reveal that the CSA doped nanorods follow 1D Mott variable-range hopping (VRH), whereas the HCl doped nanorods exhibit 2D VRH conduction mechanism. The value of interchain charge transfer integral is found to be higher for smaller size HCl doped PAni than that for larger size CSA doped PAni. The resistivity measurements exhibit semiconducting behavior for both organic and inorganic dopants and the resistivity of the CSA doped nanorods is found to be smaller than that of the HCl doped nanorods. The dielectric relaxation studies suggest Debye type relaxation with a single relaxation peak for both the dopants and the relaxation time of the carriers of the CSA doped PAni nanorods is smaller than that of the HCl doped nanorods.