Electrically conducting composite hollow fibers

Abstract

We have fabricated electrically conducting composite hollow fibers (HFs) using coaxial electrospinning and chemical polymerization. Randomly oriented and well aligned polyamic acid (PAA) HFs were successfully fabricated as templates with high surface area to volume ratio employing coaxial electrospinning. PAA HFs were converted to polyimide (PI) HFs through thermal treatment. Inner and outer surfaces of well aligned PI HF bundles were uniformly coated with a polyaniline conducting polymer by in situ chemical polymerization. These composite HF bundles had an electrical conductivity of 11.5 S/m. The average values of outer and inner diameters of the conducting HFs were 1005 and 815 nm, respectively. The conducting HF bundles are applicable as supercapacitors and actuators.