Investigation of electrical conductivity of PAN nanofibers containing silica nanoparticles produced by electrospinning method

Abstract

Abstract This paper sheds new light on how an amount of silica nanoparticles (1, 3 and 5 wt. %) acts on the morphology, the hydrophobicity and on the electrical conductivity of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. In this study, electrospinning technique was used to fabricate nanofibers composites consisting of PAN, dimethylformamide (DMF) and silica at two different applied voltages (15 kV and 20 kV). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), contact angle technique and the four-point probe technique were respectively used to investigate the morphology and diameter range, the crystalline structure, the hydrophobicity and the electrical conductivity of the obtained nanofibers. At the end, different results of the investigation were compared each other and discussed.