In this paper, the conditions of the precipitation bath for polyacrylonitrile fiber (PAN) production are optimized in order to obtain PAN fibers with optimal properties for further metallization using NiCl 2 in the presence of a reducing agent. The PAN fibers show an interesting level of electroconductivity, do not show remarkable swelling after nickel uptake, and their physico-mechanical properties do not change considerably with the metallization process. Besides metallic nickel, nickel sulfide is also detected in the structure due to decomposition of the reducing agent, resulting in the formation of sulfide.The synthesis [2, 12], characterization [3, 4, 8], and applications [3,4,8,11] of conductive polymers and fibers present an attractive and extensive field of research [11]. However, in this paper our research on conductive fibers with possible textile applications is limited to fibers obtained by chemical metallization.There are several different methods for obtaining electroconductive fibers. A first method is synthesis of conductive fibers similar to synthesis of conductive polymers. Despite the good conductivity of these fibers, they are not commonly used as conductive fibers in textile applications because their limited flexibility restricts application possibilities. A second method is blending common nonconductive fibers with electroconductive fibers. The advantage of this method is that the conductive yarns have the same mechanical properties as yarns fabricated from pure non-conductive fibers. Frequently, fibers of polyaniline [13][14], polyamide 11 [14], polyvinylalcohol [6], and nylon 11 [13] are used in the production of mixed electro-and nonconductive fibers. A third method is the synthesis of polymers with a carbon inclusion [10]. This method also limits the mechanical properties of the fibers and is not used as is. A final method is metallization [5] of fibers, which is related to the technology described in this paper. This means that metal salts are taken up by the fibers and reduced to the metallic conductive form. Metallization can be done in different ways. One way is by a vacuum metal spray, but this results in very poorly defined metallization. Galvanic coatings are used in the production of conductive fibers, but these coatings require fibers that are already conductive.The main applications of electroconductive fibers and textiles are for shielding effects [5] and discharge purposes [7,9]. Textile clothing acts as a Faraday cage for personnel and equipment that should be protected, or as electroconductive carpets to avoid charging of the carpet and/or the material that rubs it.Chemical metallization is one of the more suitable possibilities for obtaining highly conductive fibers: a chemical coating is very flexible and therefore suitable for almost any substrate. Its main advantage is that it allows the fibers to achieve high conductivity without significantly altering other properties such as density, flexibility, and handling of the substrate. Due to these characteristics, such fibe...
