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Recent developments in the area of textiles to make fabrics more functional have led to synthesizing “intelligent fabrics.” This can be achieved by making the fabrics electrically conducting. In the present study it is reported that the cotton fabrics, when impregnated with polypyrrole, achieve enhanced level of conduction. The method of diffusion of pyrrole, followed by polymerization using iron chloride as oxidant, was used. The different levels of conduction were achieved by varying the contents of monomer in the bath from 0.01 to 0.1M during the synthesis. The conductivity could be enhanced from the initial value of 10−12 to 101 S/cm. It is shown that when a fixed voltage is applied to such a modified piece of cloth, the heat generated is up to 1000 W/m2 depending on the percentage of pyrrole present. Such fabrics can be used as heating pads and integrated into the apparel to keep the wearer warm enough using a portable 9.0‐V battery. Being flexible and breathable, such fabrics have better comfort properties (compared with conventional heating pads). It can find applications in dresses for army personnel and old‐age patients. Such conductive fabrics can also find applications in many areas such as electromagnetic interference shielding, gas sensors, and temperature indicators. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 4690–4695, 2006

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films were implanted with sodium ions at various energies and total doses. Modified films were characterized by Fourier transform IR (FTIR), UV-visible (UV-vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). From FTIR studies, it was evident that scission of the main chain occurred together with removal of hydrogen and hydroxyl groups. Sodium ions formed weak bonds with oxygen from the neighboring chains. UV-vis studies of implanted PVA showed increases in the absorbance values with the various energies and total doses. XRD studies revealed that, as the energy and total dose increased overall, the crystallinity decreased and new peaks at different 2 values appeared. Changes in the crystallinity were also studied for thermally annealed PVA films in order to correlate and understand the phenomena of recrystallization due to ion implantation. The morphological features of the films were investigated by SEM.

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Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films containing two different concentrations of polyaniline were prepared by solution casting technique. These films were irradiated with gamma radiation for various doses. Structural and morphological studies of control PVA as well as PVA/ PANi composite films were carried out before and after the gamma radiation. Polyaniline is one of the interesting conducting polymers and has the property of changing its color and conductivity when switched between different oxidation states. This unique property of polyaniline was monitored by investigating UV/vis absorption spectra and changes in electrical conductivity. The changes observed could be correlated to the total dose received by the films. It is therefore proposed that PVA/PANi composite films can be used for fabricating radiation dosimeters.