The fabrication of polyaniline/single-walled carbon nanotube fibers containing a highly-oriented filler

Abstract

Highly uniform composite nanofibers composed of well-oriented single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) wrapped in a conducting polymer have been fabricated using electrospinning. Water-soluble polyaniline (WS-PANI) was used as a conducting material to improve the processability during electrospinning. The WS-PANI formed a homogeneous dispersion with the SWCNTs and poly(vinyl alcohol), and good compatibility of the WS-PANI with the SWCNTs was demonstrated by data showing interactions between two components and the wrapping of the SWCNTs by the WS-PANI. Through transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and polarized Raman spectroscopy, we confirmed that the WS-PANI plays an important role as a conducting polymer matrix to achieve aligned SWCNTs in composite nanofibers and to form uniform nanofibers.