Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PEDOT:PSS/PVP) composite nanofibers were successfully fabricated via electrospinning and used as a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor for detecting CO gas. The electrical property of individual PEDOT:PSS/PVP nanofibers was characterized and the room temperature resistivity was at the magnitude of 105 Ω·m. The QCM sensor based on PEDOT:PSS/PVP nanofibers was sensitive to low concentration (5–50 ppm) CO. In the range of 5–50 ppm CO, the relationship between the response of PEDOT:PSS nanofibers and the CO concentration was linear. Nevertheless, when the concentration exceeded 50 ppm, the adsorption of the nanofiber membrane for CO gas reached saturation and the resonant frequency range had no change. Therefore, the results open an approach to create electrospun PEDOT:PSS/PVP for gas sensing applications.

Soft conductive elastomer materials have wide potential applications in material science and electronic engineering. Through electrospinning and in-situ polymerization, a kind of well-organized coaxial polyaniline/polyvinylidence fluoride (PANI/PVDF) microfibers with conductivity about 0.6 S/cm were fabricated, which combined the advantages of conducting polymer and elastic material. It is found that the resistance of the fibers was changed with the curvature variation. The results indicate that the PANI/PVDF microfibers could be used as strain sensor with high flexibility, high sensitivity, and stable repeatability.

Polyaniline (PANI) is a promising functional polymer in the field of toxic gas detection. In this paper, nano-branched coaxial PANI fibers were grown on electrospun poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanofibers by an in situ chemical oxidative polymerization method. The resultant PANI/PMMA fibers were characterized by scanning electronic microscopy and Raman spectrum analysis. The conductivity of an individual coaxial PANI/PMMA fiber is about 2.123 S/cm and that of the conducting PANI coating layer is about 21.8 S/cm. The ammonia sensing properties of the samples were tested by means of impedance analysis. The nano-branched PANI fibers can response significantly to low concentration of ammonia due to large specific surface area, and the sensitivity shows good linear relationship to the ammonia concentration of ppm level. These results indicate that nano-branched coaxial PANI fibers are promising candidate for detection of toxic ammonia gas.

Barium titanate (BTO, BaTiO3) nanofiber was prepared via electrospinning and followed annealing process. The as-spun and calcined BTO nanofibers were characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). After annealing at 800 °C in air for 3 h, polycrystalline BTO nanofibers with 120-200 nm in diameter were successfully obtained. I-V characteristic curves of single BTO nanofiber were measured. The p-type semiconducting fiber shows a room-temperature conductivity of about 0.3 S/cm. In addition, the small humidity hysteresis demonstrates the application prospects of electrospun BTO nanofibers in the fabrication of a high-sensitive humidity sensor.

Besides the conductive patterning substrate, spatially well-defined microfibrous architectures can also be electrospun by using an insulating topographically structured collector (e.g.a nylon fabric). In both cases, it is proposed that the formation of the electrospun microfibrous patterns can be ascribed to the re-distribution of static electric field whenever collectors with different topography are introduced. Moreover, a series of simulation of the static electric field for various collectors (e.g.flat Al foil, conductive and insulating patterned substrates) have been systematically made to illustrate the formation mechanism, respectively. Our results are considered to warrant further scientific understanding on the formation of electrospun microfibrous patterning constructs, and helpful for easy generation of spatially defined architectures which have applications in a variety of areas such as tissue engineering, cell adhesion, proliferation and migration,etc.