(631f) Preparation Of Graphene Based Nanocomposites In Electrospun Polyaniline/Polyethylene Oxide Blends

Electrospinning
is a convenient method to produce polymer nanofibers with controlled diameters from
tens of nanometers to micrometers. The resulting non-woven fiber mats have high
specific surface areas in the range of 1-100 m²/g. Combining
these properties with the high electrical conductivity of intrinsically
conductive polymers, conductive electrospun fiber mats are promising for a
variety of applications such as electronic, biomedical, sensor and optical
fields.

Polyaniline is one of the
most studied electrically conductive polymers and it is unique due to its ease
of synthesis, environmental stability, and simple doping/dedoping
chemistry. It is however relatively difficult to process compared to most other
polymers. As is common among intrinsically conductive polymers, it has a fairly
rigid backbone due to its high aromaticity. Thus, the
elasticity of its solutions is generally insufficient for it to be electrospun
directly into fibers. Moreover, polyaniline has poor solubility in common
solvents, which further complicates it electrospinnability. To circumvent these problems, it is
possible to electrospun polyaniline by blending it with an easily electrospinnable polymer such as polyethylene oxide. However,
the presence of an insulator copolymer decreases the fibers conductivity due to
dilution of the conducting component. A good strategy for improving the
electrical properties of this electrospun fibers blend is to incorporate carbon-based
conductive nanofillers into
the nanofibers.

Since the discovery of graphene in 2004, it has attracted tremendous
research interest. In recent years, graphene nanosheets
have been recognized as a promising, cost effective and high quality
alternative to carbon nanotubes in composite applications. Graphene is a single-atom-thick,
two-dimensional sheet of sp²-hybrized carbon atoms arranged in a
honeycomb crystal structure with exceptionally high strength, surface area,
thermal conductivity, and unique electronic conductivity. Therefore,
considering the excellent properties of graphene and polyaniline, a highly
conductive polyaniline/polyethylene oxide composite with graphene as nanofillers may be obtained.

In this work, we report the preparation of electrospun polyaniline/polyethylene
oxide nanofibers fibers filled with non-covalently functionalized
graphene sheets. These graphene/polymer nanofibers have the potential to serve
in a variety of applications, including conductive wires and sensors.