SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CHITOSAN BASED POLYPYRROLE COPOLYMER AND EVALUATION OF ITS OPTICAL PROPERTIES

Abstract

Biopolymer-based conducting materials have emerged as attractive candidates for sustainable electronic applications. In this study, a chitosan–polypyrrole (CS–PPy) copolymer was synthesized through in situ chemical oxidative polymerization and characterized using FTIR, solid-state NMR, XRD, SEM–EDS and UV–visible spectroscopy. Structural analyses confirmed successful copolymer formation while XRD revealed a predominantly amorphous nature with reduced crystallinity. SEM images showed a rough- granular morphology with uniform polypyrrole distribution and EDS verified the presence of C, N, O and S elements. UV–visible studies demonstrated enhanced optical absorption and the optical band gap was determined to be 2.09 eV using Tauc’s method. The improved structural and optical properties indicate that the synthesized CS–PPy copolymer is a promising sustainable conducting material for applications in optoelectronics, sensors and advanced functional devices.