Conductive Bicomponent Fibers Containing Polyaniline Produced via Side-by-Side Electrospinning.

Wangcheng Liu,Jinwen Zhang,Hang Liu

doi:10.3390/polym11060954

Abstract

In this study, using a barbed Y-connector as the spinneret, camphoric acid (CSA) doped polyaniline (PANI) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) were electrospun into side-by-side bicomponent fibers. Fiber mats obtained from this side-by-side spinneret were compared with those mats electrospun from blended PEO and PANI in terms of fiber morphology, electrical conductivity, thermal stability, mechanical properties, and relative resistivity under tensile strain. The influence of different content ratio of insulating PEO (3/4/5 w/v% to solvent) and conductive PANI-CSA (1.5/2.5/3.5 w/v% to solvent) on the abovementioned properties was studied as well. Results showed that this side-by-side spinning was capable of overcoming the poor spinnability of PANI to produce fibers with PEO carrying PANI on the surface of the bicomponent fibers, which demonstrated higher electrical conductivity than blends. Although the addition of PANI deteriorated mechanical properties for both side-by-side and blended fibers when compared to the pure PEO fibers, the side-by-side fibers showed much better fiber strength and elongation than blends. In addition, the superior ductility and decent relative electrical resistivity of the side-by-side fibers imparted them great potential for flexible sensor applications.

Highlights

Smart textiles that can sense and react to an environmental stimulus, such as electricity, light, heat, mechanical pressure/strain, and chemical and biological agents, have great potential to expand the traditional ways that users interact with textiles
Conductivity change resulted from the reaction between a stimulus and the conductive material leads to current change in a closed circuit and this is an important mechanism for sensing
Solutions with too low viscosity have insufficient viscoelasticity to form a continuous polymer strand and beads often form along fibers; while excessive viscosity decreases the mobility of molecular chains and prevents them from being elongated into fibers [48]

Summary

Introduction

Smart textiles that can sense and react to an environmental stimulus, such as electricity, light, heat, mechanical pressure/strain, and chemical and biological agents, have great potential to expand the traditional ways that users interact with textiles. New textile materials with electrical conductivity have drawn great attention in the past decade because electrical conductivity is essential for building basic electronic devices and for connecting different units in the smart system [3]. Conductivity change resulted from the reaction between a stimulus and the conductive material leads to current change in a closed circuit and this is an important mechanism for sensing. Developing conductive textile fibers has been an interesting area for researchers. Enormous amount of research has been carried out Polymers 2019, 11, 954; doi:10.3390/polym11060954 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers

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