Fabrication of polyaniline/poly(ethylene oxide)/non-covalently functionalized graphene nanofibers via electrospinning

• Graphene filled nanofibers of PANi/PEO are fabricated by electrospinning technique.
• Nanofibers possess smooth surface and a highly interconnected web structure.
• Graphene has improved the electrical conductivity and thermal stability of fibers.

Conducting nanofibers of polyaniline (PANi) doped with camphor-10-sulfonic acid (HCSA), blended with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), and filled with 1-pyrenebutanoic acid, succinimidyl ester functionalized graphene (G-PBASE) have been fabricated using electrospinning. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR) and thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) was utilized to characterize the PANi/PEO/G-PBASE fibers morphology and properties. The observations show that electrospun fibers are highly interconnected and possess a relatively smooth surface. The average diameter of fibers was 222 ± 60 nm. The electrical conductivity of PANi/PEO and PANi/PEO/G-PBASE at room temperature was also studied. The unique nanostructured composite of PANi/PEO/G-PBASE with small loading of G-PBASE (5 wt.% relative to PANi) showed two order of magnitude enhancement in the electrical conductivity and one order of magnitude enhancement in thermal stability in comparison to PANi/PEO nanofibers.

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