Graphene oxide-coated amino-modified polyacrylonitrile to fabricate highly conductive fabrics

Abstract

Graphene conductive polyacrylonitrile (PAN) substrate is an important material, owing to its high strength, flexibility, and comfort. In this work, a PAN fabric was cationized with triethylene tetramine (TETA) for increased adsorption of anionic graphene oxide (GO), which mainly forms ionic bonds. The TETA-modified PAN (Amino-PAN) fabric was then treated with GO using a dipping method followed by in situ reduction of GO to obtain reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The electric conductivity of Amino-PAN fabrics was increased with the increasing of TETA modification temperature from 90°C to 110°C. A surface electric resistance of 0.61 kΩ cm⁻¹ was obtained for 2 g L⁻¹ GO and TETA modification performed at 110°C for 2 h. This resistance was considerably lower than that of the original PAN fabric for one cycle of the dipping–reduction GO treatment (1RGO-PAN, 42.69 kΩ cm⁻¹) and six cycles of the dipping–reduction GO treatment (6RGO-PAN, 1.52 kΩ cm⁻¹). The results revealed that the anionic GO was more easily adsorbed on the surface of the Amino-PAN fabrics than on the original PAN fabrics. The surface electric resistance of the 1RGO-Amino-PAN fabrics slightly increased from 0.61 to 0.79 kΩ cm⁻¹ after 30 washing cycles. The results showed that the RGO-coated Amino-PAN fabric had excellent washability. Furthermore, the TETA modification process reduced the dipping–reduction times of the GO finishing PAN fabrics, and can be easily used in the production of RGO-based flexible conductive material.