Electrical and mechanical properties of polyaniline fibres produced by a one-step wet spinning process

We have recently developed a new acid-solution processing route for the conjugated polymer, polyaniline (PANi) [Adams et al., J Phys: Condens Matter 1998;10:8293] that now allows us to demonstrate the wet-spinning of inherently conductive PANi fibres in a one-step process. This is achieved from solutions of PANi protonated with 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid in dichloroacetic acid. The fibres were spun into various coagulation solvents, i.e. acetone, butyl acetate and 4-methyl-2-pentanone. 'As-spun' fibres have Young's moduli of 40-60 MPa, ultimate tensile strengths of 20-60 MPa and electrical conductivites of 70- 150 S cm (-1). These fibres may be drawn at room temperature or above to an extension of similar to 500%, with a concomitant increase in conductivity of up to a maximum of 1950 +/- S cm(-1) It was also shown that the fibres may be drawn at elevated temperatures, then annealed to give fibres with Young's moduli up to 2 GPa and ultimate tensile strengths up to 97 MPa whilst retaining conductivities of similar to 600 S cm(-1). Crown copyright (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.