Preparation of nonwoven mats of electrospun poly(lactic acid)/polyaniline blend nanofibers: A new approach

Abstract

The preparation of nonwoven mats of electrospun poly(lactic acid)/polyaniline (PANI) blend nanofibers faces some critical challenges that will be addressed in the present work. The challenges are in achieving high and adjustable content of PANI while keeping the spinnable solution nonagglomerated with no need to further filtration that might lead to wrong estimation of PANI content in the mat. We report an unprecedented content of 40% wt of PANI that is achieved using a new two-step procedure. It is based on: (1) the preparation of the spinnable solution from a friable nonagglomerated and readily dispersible PANI:p-TSA powder and (2) the use of an optimized mixture of m-cresol/dichloromethane. The obtained nanofiber mats are characterized by FTIR and UV-vis spectroscopy. The morphology and the thermal stability of the nanofibers are investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The amorphous structure of the nanofibers is verified using XRD measurements. The DC-conductivity of these blend nanofibers is found to be far larger than the published DC-conductivity values for blend nanofibers of PANI with PLLA or with other polymers. This is attributed to the high content of PANI in the blend and to the role played by m-cresol as a secondary dopant. The investigation of the aging effect on the DC-conductivity reveals an exponential decrease with a characteristic time of s 13 weeks. The electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows a pure ohmic behavior of the blend mat.

Surface and proton conductivity properties of electrospun poly(vinyl butyral)/polyaniline nanofibers

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Among these ICPs, PANI which has been known for 150 years, [19] is a remarkable material used in producing nanofiber mats due to its unique properties including its ease of synthesis, high conductivity, good environmental stability, and its relatively low cost. [20,21] One major drawback of PANI is its low solubility and process ability due to its rigid aromatic backbone and strong intra-and interchain interactions and therefore the formation of neat polyaniline nanofibers is rather difficult. [21,22] To overcome this issue, generally, PANI is blended with different polymers which serve as processing aids.…”

Synthesis, characterization and microwave characteristics of ternary nanocomposite of MWCNTs/doped Sr-hexaferrite/PANI

“…According to previous studies, the preferential sites for Al 3+ and Cr 3+ ions are 12k and 2a respectively [14][15][16][17][18]. Substitution of Fe 3+ ions with non-magnetic ions in these sites with …”

“…Generally, different factors like, the value of electronegativity, the ionic radius and partner ions are the most influential parameters on the manner of substitution of doped cations in the structure [14][15][16][17][18]. According to previous studies, the preferential sites for Al 3+ and Cr 3+ ions are 12k and 2a respectively [14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…The shoulder at 1041 cm -1 is attributed to the symmetric and asymmetric O=S=O stretching vibrations of sulphonic groups. The peak at 680 cm -1 represents the C-S stretching [14].…”

H2S Sensing Material Based on Cotton Fabrics Modified with Polyaniline

“…[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] PAni's electrical and optical properties are dependent on the different oxidations states of this conducting polymer. [32,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] These oxidation states are leucoemeraldine, protoemeraldine, emeraldine, nigraniline and pernigraniline. However, the three most studied oxidation states are leucoemeraldine (y ¼ 0completely reduced state), emeraldine (y ¼ 0.5) and pernigraniline (y ¼ 1fully oxidized state).…”