Abstract
Flexible conductive materials have greatly promoted the rapid development of intelligent and wearable textiles. This article reports the design of flexible polypyrrole/bacterial cellulose (PPy/BC) conductive nanocomposites by in situ chemical polymerization. Box-Behnken response surface methodology has been applied to optimize the process. The effects of the pyrrole amount, the molar ratio of HCl to pyrrole and polymerization time on conductivity were investigated. A flexible PPy/BC nanocomposite was obtained with an outstanding electrical conductivity as high as 7.34 S cm−1. Morphological, thermal stability and electrochemical properties of the nanocomposite were also studied. The flexible PPy/BC composite with a core-sheath structure exhibited higher thermal stability than pure cellulose, possessed a high areal capacitance of 1001.26 mF cm−2 at the discharge current density of 1 mA cm−2, but its cycling stability could be further improved. The findings of this research demonstrate that the response surface methodology is one of the most effective approaches for optimizing the conditions of synthesis. It also indicates that the PPy/BC composite is a promising material for applications in intelligent and wearable textiles.
Highlights
Intelligent textiles are revolutionary fabrics based on the concept of bionics that integrate computing, digital components and electronics through novel technologies into textiles for advanced functionalities [1,2]
The preparation procedure of polypyrrole/bacterial cellulose (PPy/bacterial cellulose (BC)) composites by in situ chemical polymerization was described in the previous work [19,28,40]
The BC membranes were purified by being washed in distilled water several times
Summary
Intelligent textiles are revolutionary fabrics based on the concept of bionics that integrate computing, digital components and electronics through novel technologies into textiles for advanced functionalities [1,2]. Electronically conducting polymers (EPCs) including polypyrrole (PPy), polythiophene (PTh) and polyaniline (PANI) are typically used to coat on cellulose substrates for composite materials. They have excellent conductivity, controllable synthesis process and mechanical flexibility [6,7,8,9,10]. Deposition of PPy on a fiber surface of fabrics and yarn, such as silk [13], cotton [14,15], polyester [16] and polyamide [17] has been widely investigated These conductive materials were generally obtained through in situ oxidative polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of textiles [18]
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