Recent Trends in Electroactive Polymer Nanocomposites and Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation Effects on Them

Materials research group at the Department of Physics, Tezpur University is involved in research on electroactive polymers viz., polymer electrolytes, conducting polymers and their nanocomposites and investigation of Swift Heavy Ion irradiation on them. Different polymer electrolyte systems including PVdF-HFP undoped PAni nanofibers dispersed, PEO-MMT, PMMA-MMT, PVdF-MMT based nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes have been synthesized and characterized by ionic conductivity, electron microscopy, XRD, FTIR, DSC and electrochemical measurements with a view to gain an insight as to how ionic conductivity in polymers can be understood in terms of the dynamic aspects of local structure, including changes in coordination number and in the distribution of electronic charge. In conducting polymers, research has been taken up to develop conducting polymer based nanostructures and nanocomposites using soft template, rapid mixing and interfacial polymerization techniques for their applications as actuators, chemical and biosensors, and antioxidant materials. Understanding the structure property relationships in these technologically important materials using various diffraction, microscopic and spectroscopic techniques is of major interest. The group is also working on the study of swift heavy ion induced modifications in electroactive polymers in collaboration with Inter University Acceleration Centre (IUAC) New Delhi.