Abstract
Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) ultrafine fibers with different proportions of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) embedded have been fabricated using a modified electrospinning device with a rotating collector. With the increasing of MWCNT content, the β phase was noticeable enhanced, and the fibers became more elastic, which was manifested by Young's modulus decreased drastically. Furthermore, with adding the amounts of MWCNTs, the density of carbon nanotube (CNT)-CNT junctions among the fibers increased accordingly. When the MWCNT content was of 1.2 wt.%, a stable three-dimensional conducting network was formed. After this percolation threshold, the density of CNT-CNT junctions among the fibers tended to be a constant quantity, leading to a stabilized conductivity consequently. It is hoped that our results can be helpful for the fabrication of flexible devices, piezoelectric devices, force transducer, and so on.PACS81.05.Qk; 81.16.-c
Highlights
Electrospinning is a simple and versatile technique for fabricating ultrafine fibers with diameters ranging from several micrometers down to a few nanometers
According to a previous work of Dror et al [25], the multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) are more sensitive to distortions during electrospinning and are incorporated into the fibers in an unoriented form compared with single-walled nanotubes (SWCNTs)
The diffraction peak at 2θ = 19.9° in the X-ray diffractometer (XRD) diffraction pattern (Figure 3b) corresponds to the β phase, where the MWCNT content is of 2 wt.%
Summary
Electrospinning is a simple and versatile technique for fabricating ultrafine fibers with diameters ranging from several micrometers down to a few nanometers With outstanding properties such as large surface area, high length/diameter ratio, flexible surface functionality, and tunable surface morphologies, the electrospun fibers have an underlying application in optoelectronics, sensors, catalysis, textiles, filters, fiber reinforcement, tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound healing, etc. PVDF consists of four different crystalline phases depending on the chain conformation of trans and gauche linkages: α, β, γ, and δ Among these phases, the α phase is known as the most abundant form commercially available powders and films, and the β phase has the largest spontaneous polarization per unit cell and exhibits the highest electroactive properties, responsible for most of PVDF's piezoelectric characters [14]. It is reported that electrospinning and blending PVDF with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can increase the β-phase content in PVDF [15]
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