Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the best-known conductive polymers that has been widely studied due to its ease of synthesis, low cost, and tunable conductivity. However, it is still challenging to synthesize dispersible and highly electroconductive PANIs with high aspect ratios. This research provides a facile onestep synthetic method assisted by an organic dye, methyl orange (MO), to obtain high aspect ratios (the ratio could reach 20) in PANI structures. The presence of MO contributes to microtubes' morphology, enhancing their electrical conductivity from 0.5 to 4.6 S cm −1 , which is 8 times that of spherical PANI nanoparticles. The electrical properties and processability of the PANI microtubes were well explored simultaneously. The PANI microtubes can reach high conductive levels and maintain stable electrical performance for over 30 days. In addition, the PANI microtubes could be dispersed in a wide range of organic solvents and water. These functionalities enable them to act as conductive fillers to be effectively combined with silver flakes in thermoplastic polyurethane resins for fabricating conductive composites. Adding the PANI microtubes combined with silver flakes as conductive fillers in polyurethane, the resistivity of the composites can decrease to 1/1900 of those filled only with the same mass ratio of silver flakes, showing their great potential in reinforcing resins.
Tin (Sn) metallic material is one of the best-known metals and has been extensively studied due to its ease of processing, low melting point, and low cost. However, it is still challenging to synthesize high-processing performance and antioxidant Sn nanoparticles with tunable sizes. This research reported a facile, easy-to-scale-up polyol-mediated synthesis of Sn nanoparticles assisted by sodium citrates as a capping agent. The presence of citrate capping facilitated uniform nucleation of Sn nanoparticles and enhanced their antioxidant capacity and dispersion properties. These nanoparticles can remain stable against oxidation for more than 270 days in an ambient atmosphere, even under continuous heating at 200 °C for over 12 h. The citrate capping also inhibits interparticle agglomeration and allows the preparation of high-quality suspensions in water and many conventional organics. Moreover, efficient size tuning over a wide range (60 nm−1 μm) can be achieved simply by changing the Sn 2+ precursor concentrations. The above-mentioned antioxidant capacity and processability allow them to combine with silver flakes in thermosetting epoxy resin as complementary conductive fillers effectively, creating conductive pathways among the silver flakes to obtain high-performance electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs). By adding Sn nanoparticles as complementary conductive fillers, the resistivity of the ECAs can be reduced to 1/ 6000 of that of the ECAs filled with only the same mass ratio of silver flakes, exhibiting its great potential in future electronics.
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