pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S19 - Special Symposium: Microtechnology and smart materials
Oral Presentation
 
 

Hybrid core shell electrospun nanofibers of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/polyaniline with barium titanate and nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes

Santos João Paulo Ferreira (1)*, Melo Guilherme Henrique França (1), Arjmand Mohammad (2), Sundararaj Uttandaraman (2), Bretas Rosario Elida Suman (1)

(1) Federal University of São Carlos - São Paulo - Brazil, (2) University of Calgary - Alberta - Canada

Hybrid nanocomposites composed of two materials are usually designed to improve their performance over individual components. Here we report the incorporation of nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) and barium titanate (BaTiO3) in core-shell nanofibers of poly (vinylidene fluoride)/polyaniline (PVDF/PANi) using the electrospinning technique. The core of the nanofibers was composed of PVDF/BaTiO3 and the shell a nanocomposite of PVDF/PANi/NCNT. Piezoelectric PVDF/BaTiO3 nanocomposites are capable of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy, which can be stored in energy storage devices. However PVDF/BaTiO3 is not conductive and thus, a conductive associate material is needed to transfer accumulated static charges into the capacitor. NCNTs are n type conductor/semiconductors and, therefore could be a good choice. In this work NCNTs were synergically used with PANi, a semiconductive polymer, as a semiconductive shell. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the morphology of the nanofibers. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were carried out to study the crystalline beta-phase of PVDF. Four probe measurements were done in order to evaluate the electrical properties. The results showed that nanofibers with a core shell structure were succesfuly obtained; the nanofibers were semiconductive and there was an increase in the beta-phase in the electrospun PVDF nanofibers filled with NCNTs as compared with compression molded samples of neat PVDF.