Electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of polyaniline/natural rubber composite fibers

Abstract

Electrically conducting elastomer fibers based on natural rubber (NR) and up to 10% w/w polyaniline (PANI) in its emeraldine base (EB) form were fabricated by a wet spinning process. The resulting fibers at various PANI contents were doped by immersion in aqueous HCl solution, which converted the PANI to the electrically conductive emeraldine salt (ES) form. The morphology of the composite fibers was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). PANI particles were inhomogeneously distributed in the NR matrix. The electrical conductivity of the fibers increased with the increasing PANI-ES content and leveled off at a value of around 10 23 S/cm at PANI-ES concentration of 5% w/w. The fibers retained most of their elasticity upon doping, while the tenacity was somewhat reduced. Gratifyingly, the electrical conductivity of the new elastomer fibers was preserved upon elongational deformation, even if strains as large as 600% were applied.

Structure and design of polymers for durable, stretchable organic electronics

“…168 Through a wet-spinning processing technique, PANI (3) agglomerates were observed to mix inhomogeneously and preferentially cluster near the outer surface of fiber bundles. With increasing PANI (3) content, surface roughness and conductivity increased while tenacity (defined as a textile's breaking force per linear density) and elongation at breaking point decreased in comparison with natural rubber.…”

Electrical investigations of polyaniline/sulfonated polystyrene composites using broadband dielectric spectroscopy

“…On the hand, introducing conductivity properties to non-conducting polymers was successfully performed through blending amounts of PAni with insulating polymer, for example, the electrical conductivity of PAni particles in the natural rubber matrix fibers increased by increasing PAni content and leveled off at a value of around 10 À3 S/cm for PAni concentration of 5% w/w. The fibers retained most of their elasticity upon doping, while the tenacity was somewhat reduced [10]. Moreover, Utilization of PAni and its blends with thermoplastic materials in order to obtain a conductive process able material for packaging applications is also reported.…”

Electrical, mechanical, and thermal analysis of natural rubber/polyaniline-Dbsa composite

“…PANI's mechanical properties can be improved by mixing it with a polymeric host matrix to form composites or blends . Many polymeric materials can be used as supports for PANI, such as cellulose nanofiber 5 , epoxy resin 7 , polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 4 , polyurethane 8 , poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) 9 , and rubbers [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] . Among polymeric matrixes, natural rubber (NR) has been increasingly used for forming composites owing to its unique mechanical properties.…”

“…NR/PANI blends and composites have already been obtained using different methods such as mill mixing 14 , solution/dispersion mixing 11,12,16,22 , and electrochemical 17 and chemical polymerization 10 of aniline in the presence of a host matrix. However, few studies have focused on NR/ PANI composites obtained by a mixture of PANI dissolved in an organic solvent with NR latex [10][11][12] .…”

“…However, few studies have focused on NR/ PANI composites obtained by a mixture of PANI dissolved in an organic solvent with NR latex [10][11][12] .…”