High-Strength and Conductive Electrospun Nanofiber Yarns.

Abstract

In electrospinning, nanofibers are frequently produced in nonwoven web form. Their poor mechanical properties (below 100 MPa) and difficulty in tailoring the fibrous structure have restricted their applications. However, advanced materials must be highly resistant to both deformation and fracture. By combining electrospinning technology with stretching, we have overcome this disadvantage and demonstrated a polyacrylonitrile nanofiber yarn with a tensile strength of 743 ± 20 MPa. The nearly perfect uniaxial orientation of the fibrils under the stretching process is crucial for the remarkable mechanical properties of the yarn. Additionally, the nanofiber yarn was functionalized by a dip-coating process with silver nanowires (AgNWs), imparting conductive properties. This conductive, high-strength nanofiber yarn demonstrates practical applications in flexible and wearable devices. The presented strategy is versatile and can be adapted to create other high-performance nanofiber yarns, with potential uses in fields such as biomedicine and smart textiles.