The effect of low concentrations of polypyrrole on the structural, thermal, and dielectric characteristics of CMC/PPy blends

Abstract The current work aims to synthesize carboxymethyl cellulose/polypyrrole (CMC/PPy) blends with different PPy concentrations as promising blends for energy storage devices with low cost and excellent chemical and physical characteristics. The structural and dielectric characteristics of CMC/PPy blends were studied. FT-IR spectroscopy is utilized to study the structural properties of the present blends, whereas the dielectric properties are explored at frequency range of 0.1 Hz−20 MHz. The structural study of CMC/PPy blends showed good homogeneity between the CMC matrix and PPy as a conductive filler. The thermal behavior of the present blends was also investigated using DSC, where the thermal stability of the blends was improved after incorporating PPy into the host matrix. The dielectric characteristics results indicated a rise in the dielectric parameters of CMC with an increase in the PPy content up to 8 wt%. The dielectric parameters of CMC/PPy blends are frequency dependents. The dielectric constant (ε′) and AC electrical conductivity of the blends under study enhanced by about 33% with a rise in the PPy content to 8 wt%. The dielectric loss (ε″) values decreased from 3.4938 to 0.93071 at 10 kHz; this performance means that the CMC/PPy blends have an excellent possibility for energy storage devices with low dielectric loss in various applications, such as sensors, batteries, and capacitors.