Effects of electron-beam irradiation on conducting polypyrrole nanowires

Conducting polypyrrole (PPy) nanowires (NWs) were irradiated by a relatively high energy (300 keV-2 MeV) electron-beam (e-beam) generated from a linear electron accelerator in an atmospheric environment. From the current-voltage characteristics of pristine and 2 MeV e-beam irradiated PPy NWs, we observed a dramatic variation in resistance from 8.0x10(2) to 1.45x10(8) Omega, that is, we observed a transition from conducting states to nonconducting states through the e-beam irradiation. To discern conformational changes and the doping states of PPy NWs through the e-beam irradiation, we measured Raman and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra for the PPy NWs. As the energy of the e-beam irradiation increased, we observed that the PPy NWs were changed from doping states to dedoping states with conformational modification including the variation in pi-conjugation length.