Abstract
The aim of this work is to investigate the development of nanofiber mats, based on intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs), which show simultaneously a high electrical conductivity and mandatory insoluble water properties. In particular, the nanofibers, thanks to their properties such as high surface area, porosity, and their ability to offer a preferential pathway for electron flow, play a crucial role to improve the essential characteristics ensured by ICPs. The nanofiber mats are obtained by electrospinning process, starting from a polymeric solution made of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). PEO is selected not only as a dopant to increase the electrical/ionic conductivity, as deeply reported in the literature, but also to ensure the proper stability of the polymeric jet, to collect a dried nanofiber mat. Moreover, in the present work, two different treatments are proposed in order to induce crosslinking between PEO chains and PEDOT:PSS, made insoluble into water which is the final sample. The first process is based on a heating treatment, conducted at 130°C under nitrogen atmosphere for 6 h, named the annealing treatment. The second treatment is provided by UV irradiation that is effective to induce a final crosslinking, when a photoinitiator, such as benzophenone, is added. Furthermore, we demonstrate that both crosslinking treatments can be used to verify the preservation of nanostructures and their good electrical conductivity after water treatment (i.e., water resistance). In particular, we confirm that the crosslinking method with UV irradiation results to being more effective than the standard annealing treatment. Indeed, we demonstrate that the processing time, required to obtain the final crosslinked nanofiber mats with a high electrical conductance, results to being smaller than the one needed during the heating treatment.
Highlights
Nowadays, intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs) represent an intriguing class of functional materials, thanks to their unique properties that combine (i) good chemical resistance, (ii) low weight, and low production cost to good mechanical, optical, and electrical characteristics [1,2,3]
We focused on the main target of the present work, which is to investigate the enhancement of water resistance of these kinds of crosslinked nanofiber mats
We investigated the fabrication of nanofiber mats through the electrospinning process, starting from a water-based solution, containing polyethylene oxide (PEO) and PEDOT:PSS
Summary
Intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs) represent an intriguing class of functional materials, thanks to their unique properties that combine (i) good chemical resistance, (ii) low weight, and low production cost to good mechanical, optical, and electrical characteristics [1,2,3]. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) results in being the most attractive among ICPs, due to its high stability, high electrical conductivity, and larger processability [4]. An ever increasing interest has emerged to extend ICP processing to other morphologies, and nanofibers by electrospinning are among the most interesting nanostructures so far. The set of properties shown by nanostructured samples obtained by electrospinning, such as high surface area, high porosity, and their ability to offer a preferential pathway for electron flow, play
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