Publication Type : Journal Article
Thematic Areas : Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine
Publisher : Science of Advanced Materials
Source : Science of Advanced Materials, Volume 4, Number 12, p.1220-1225 (2012)
Url : http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84877061202&partnerID=40&md5=de243656cde8b528c9a3c74c830da3bf
Campus : Kochi
School : Center for Nanosciences
Center : Nanosciences
Department : Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine
Year : 2012
Abstract : The present study reports the electrospinning of commercially available polyaniline-carbon black composite to develop conductive nanofibrous mats using polyvinyl alcohol as a binder solution. This binder solution was sublimated at 230 °C to attain a complete conducting nanofiber network. The binder sublimation was confirmed using thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). Ultra-violet visible spectroscopy was used to determine the refractive index values for porosity measurements. It was observed that the heat treatment reduced the fiber diameter from nbsp;250 nm to nbsp;160 nm and increased the porosity from 41±1.2% to 70±2%. The spatial specific conductance mapping using Scanning Electro-Chemical Microscopy showed that the presence of polyvinyl alcohol binder in polyaniline-carbon black composite could introduce percolation threshold. The heat-treated fibers showed four times increase in specific conductance values on removal of binder phase from the fiber structure. The role of nanoscaled Schottky barriers in determining conductive pathways through polymer by hopping mechanism and also along carbon black particles are also been proposed in this study. © 2012 by American Scientific Publishers.
Cite this Research Publication : S. Kalluri, Madhavan, A. A., Bhupathi, P. A., Vani, R., Paravannoor, A., A. S. Nair, Nagarajan, S., Subramanian, K. R. V., Nair, S. V., and Balakrishnan, A., “Electrical properties of electrospun polyaniline-carbon black composite nanofibers”, Science of Advanced Materials, vol. 4, pp. 1220-