EFFECTS OF DOPANT, COAGULANT AND REINFORCING NANO-FILLER ON MECHANCAL AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF WET-SPUN POLYANILNE NANOCOMPOSITE FIBERS

This paper describes the application of Taguchi experimental design to study the simultaneous effects of dopant, coagulant and multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as reinforcing filler on properties (tensile strength and electrical conductivity) of polyaniline (PAni) nanocomposite fibers produced via a wet spinning process. MWCNTs content was found to be the most significant factor accounting for 72.8% of the total contribution of the three selected parameters in tensile strength. For dopant, contribution percentage was 17.6% and coagulant effect was poor therefore pooled. The significant factor associated with the electrical conductivity showed that MWCNTs content has a maximum contribution of 98%, whereas dopant and coagulant have negligible effects with contributions of 0.021% and 0.247%, respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and tapping mode atomic force microscope (AFM) were employed to study the morphology of fibers. The thermal characteristics of nanocomposite fibers have been studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Elemental analysis of fibers showed a higher degree of doping at about 47% to 55%.