Flexible Conductive Fibers from Alginate, Cellulose Nanocrystals, and Polyaniline by Wet Spinning

The composite conductive fibers comprisedsustainable resources(soft alginate and rigid cellulosenanocrystals) exhibited the good performances of tensile strength,electrical conductivity, and flexibility by wet spinning. Polyaniline (PANI) has indeed received significant attentionandextensive research in both academic and electronic industrial fields.Its unique properties, such as conductivity and processability, makeit a promising material for various applications. Researchers andindustrialists have explored PANI for its potential use in electronicdevices, such as sensors, batteries, capacitors, and actuators, aswell as in other areas like corrosion protection, supercapacitors,and electromagnetic shielding. The poor compatibility, tendency toaggregate, and poor mechanical properties of nanostructured PANI havehindered its performance. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were usedas a bio-template for covalent grafting PANI onto hydrophilic CNCs(CNC-g-PANI) through in situ oxidative polymerization.The resulting CNC-g-PANI suspension with the sodiumalginate (SA) matrix was wet-spun into composite fibers, which werecompared to composite fibers made by physical blending of pure PANIand hydrogen-bonded CNC/PANI. The parameters were characterized toinvestigate the performance of the composite fibers. The covalentgrafted CNC-g-PANI suspension maintained stable dispersionthroughout the wet spinning process, making it suitable for both fundamentalresearch and industrial processing. Indeed, the development of CNC-g-PANI@SA composite fibers through the covalent graftingof PANI onto cellulose nanocrystals offers a simple and eco-friendlyapproach. These composite fibers exhibit improved properties, includingenhanced tensile strength, electrical conductivity, flexibility, andfatigue resistance. These attributes make them highly suitable forapplications in the antistatic textile and electronic industries.

Automated summary

This study investigates the covalent grafting of polyaniline (PANI) onto cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to prepare composite conductive fibers with improved properties. The wet spinning process resulted in fibers with good tensile strength, electrical conductivity, and flexibility. These composite fibers have potential applications in antistatic textiles and the electronic industry.