Frictional and tensile properties of conducting polymer coated wool and alpaca fibers

Wool and alpaca fibers were coated with polypyrrole by vapor-phase polymerisation method. The changes in frictional and tensile properties of the single fibers upon coating with the conductive polymer are presented. Coating a thin layer of polypyrrole on the alpaca and wool fibers results in a significant reduction in the fiber coefficient of friction, as the conducting polymer layer smooths the protruding edges of the fiber scales. It also reduces the directional friction effect of the fibers. Depending on the type of fiber, the coating may slightly enhance the tensile properties of the coated fibers.     

Decay of electrical conductivity in p-toluene sulfonate doped polypyrrole films

Long term performance of conductivity of p-toluene sulfonic acid (pTSA) doped electrochemically synthesized polypyrrole (PPy) films was estimated from accelerated aging studies between 80 °C and 120 °C. Conductivity decay experiments indicated that overall aging behavior of PPy films deviated from first order kinetics at prolonged aging times at elevated temperatures. However, an approximate value for the activation energy of the conductivity decay of PPy was calculated as E=47.4 kJ/mol, enabling an estimate of a rate constant of k=8.35×10⁻⁶/min at 20 °C. The rate of decrease of conductivity was not only temperature dependent but also influenced by the dopant concentration. A concentration of 0.005 M pTSA in the electrolyte resulted in a conductive film and when this film was exposed to 120 °C for a period of 40 h, the conductivity decayed to about 1/20 of its original value. The concentration of pTSA was increased to 0.05 mol/l and when the resulting film was aged in the same way, it showed a decrease in the conductivity to about 1/3 of its original value. Both microwave transmission and dc conductivity data revealed that highly doped films were considerably more electrically stable than lightly doped films. The dopant had a preserving effect on the electrical properties of PPy.     

Optimization of polymerization conditions and thermal degradation of conducting polypyrrole coated polyester fabrics

PET fabric is coated with conducting polypyrrole (PPy) by oxidative polymerization from an aqueous solution of Py using ferric chloride hexahydrate (FeCl₃) as oxidant and p-toluene sulphonate (pTSA) as dopant. The optimum concentrations for Py, FeCl₃ and pTSA were found to be 0.11, 0.857 and 0.077 mol/l respectively, which yielded a conductive fabrics with resistivity as low as 72 Ω/sq. PPy fabric gained resistivity less than one order of magnitude when aged for 18 months at room temperature. The stabilizing effect of the dopant pTSA against thermal degradation was demonstrated; the undoped samples reached resistivity of around 40 kΩ, whereas doped samples reached less than 2 kΩ at the same temperature and time.     

Correlating the fineness and residual gum content of degummed hemp fibres

It is well known residual gum exists in degummed or retted hemp fibres. Gum removal results in improvement in fibre fineness and the properties of the resultant hemp yarns. However, it is not known what correlation if any exists between the residual gum content in retted hemp fibres and the fibre fineness, described in terms of fibre width in this paper. This study examined the mean width and coefficient of variation (CV) of fibre width of seventeen chemically retted hemp samples with reference to residual gum content. The mean and CV of fibre width were obtained from an Optical fibre diameter analyser (OFDA 100). The linear regression analysis results show that the mean fibre width is directly proportional to the residual gum content. A slightly weaker linear correlation also exists between the coefficient of variation of fibre width and the residual gum content. The strong linear co-relation between the mean of fibre width and the residual gum content is a significant outcome, since testing for fibre width using the OFDA is a much simpler and quicker process than testing the residual gum content. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) reinforces the OFDA findings. SEM micrographs show a flat ribbon like fibre cross-section hence the term “fibre width” is used instead of fibre diameter. Spectral differences in the untreated dry decorticated skin samples and chemically treated and subsequently carded samples indicate delignification. The peaks at 1370 cm⁻¹, 1325 cm⁻¹, 1733 cm⁻¹, and 1600 cm⁻¹ attributed to lignin in the untreated samples are missing from the spectra of the treated samples. The spectra of the treated samples are more amine-dominated with some of the OH character lost.     

Aging studies on conducting polypyrrole

Change of tensile properties, electrical conductivity and microwave shielding of electrochemically synthesized polypyrrole films with time are presented. Highly doped films had good electrical stability, retaining high microwave reflectivity throughout the aging period. Lightly doped films were less stable and partially reflective and absorptive of microwaves. FT-IR spectral observations revealed a progressive increase in intensity of an unsaturated conjugated carbonyl peak, which was not observed in the highly doped films, suggesting that the concentration of the dopant had an influence on the mechanism of degradation of conductivity.