Abstract
Plastic bottles are generally recycled by remolding them into numerous products. In this study, waste from plastic bottles was used to fabricate recycled polyethylene terephthalate (r-PET) nanofibers via the electrospinning technique, and high-performance conductive polyethylene terephthalate nanofibers (r-PET nanofibers) were prepared followed by copper deposition using the electroless deposition (ELD) method. Firstly, the electrospun r-PET nanofibers were chemically modified with silane molecules and polymerized with 2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl trimethylammonium chloride (METAC) solution. Finally, the copper deposition was achieved on the surface of chemically modified r-PET nanofibers by simple chemical/ion attraction. The water contact angle of r-PET nanofibers, chemically modified r-PET nanofibers, and copper deposited nanofibers were 140°, 80°, and 138°, respectively. The r-PET nanofibers retained their fibrous morphology after copper deposition, and EDX results confirmed the presence of copper on the surface of r-PET nanofibers. XPS was performed to analyze chemical changes before and after copper deposition on r-PET nanofibers. The successful deposition of copper one r-PET nanofibers showed an excellent electrical resistance of 0.1 ohms/cm and good mechanical strength according to ASTM D-638.
Highlights
Flexible electrically conductive materials have gained significant demand for electronics and telecommunication systems because of their capability to convey electrical properties in this century [1]
Neat recycled polyethylene terephthalate (r-PET) nanofiber samples were assessed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analyzed to identify the surface morphology before and after the copper
Had a diameter around 700 nm, which is slightly higher than the pristine r-PET nanofibers due to copper deposition on the nanofibers [24]
Summary
Flexible electrically conductive materials have gained significant demand for electronics and telecommunication systems because of their capability to convey electrical properties in this century [1]. The polymer and metal composites have been extensively explored [3] with a variety of new applications including flexible displays, wearable electronics, energy devices, biological actuators, and smart electronic skin [4,5,6,7,8]. The parameters of these smart materials can work under mechanical deformation and interconnect with great mechanical flexibility (i.e., bending, stretching, twisting, and compressing) [1].
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