Resistivity of conductive polymer-coated fabric

Abstract

Preparation of conductive polymer-coated fabrics was carried out by admicellar polymerization with and without addition of salt. By this method, thin layers of conducting polymers, namely polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene and poly (N-methylpyrrole) were formed on cotton and polyester fabrics via a surfactant template. The surface morphology of the treated fabrics was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, the effects of monomer concentration, oxidant:monomer ratio and the amount of salt on the resistivity of the resulting fabrics were studied. The results showed that the apparent surface and volume resistivities decreased with increasing in monomer concentration in the range 5/15 mM. There was no significant difference in resistivity values when oxidant:monomer ratios of 1:1 and 2:1 were used. Addition of 0.5 M NaCl was found to decrease the resistivity of the resulting fabrics significantly. SEM micrographs of the treated fabrics show distinctive film-like coatings on the fiber surfaces. The lowest resistivity obtained with polypyrrole was aound 10⁶ ohms.