Highly conductive and flexible silk fabric via electrostatic self assemble between reduced graphene oxide and polyaniline

Abstract

In this paper, an electroconductive silk fabric is fabricated by electrostatic self assemble of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and polyaniline (PANI) under acid aqueous solution lower the isoelectric point (pI) of silk. The RGO coated silk fabric (silk-RGO) is prepared by self assemble graphene oxide (GO) sheets on the surface of silk, then the GO reduced to RGO, and aniline (ANI) self-assembled on the surface of silk-RGO in situ polymerization of PANI. The results show that the electrical conductivity of silk is mainly influenced by the composition of outermost layer, the ANI and GO concentration, ANI dipping time also contribute to the electrical conductivity of silk. When PANI self-assembled on the outermost layer of silk-RGO, a blue-green, high conductive and flexible silk fabric with a lower electrical surface resistance of 0.330 K cm−1 was obtained. The SEM shows that RGO sheets formed a thin film on the surface of silk, and PANI deposited on the surface of silk with nanowires. The Raman and FTIR-ATR spectra of silk-PANI and silk-RGO-PANI are presented PANI characteristic peaks, and the thermostability of self-assembled samples enhanced.