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Fabricating Superhydrophobic Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications
Published on: August 28, 2015
Thermal-Induced Percolation Phenomena and Elasticity of Highly Oriented Electrospun Conductive Nanofibrous
Muhammad A Munawar1,2, Dirk W Schubert1,2
1Institute of Polymer Materials, Department of Material Science, Faculty of Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstrasse 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
Highly oriented electrospun conductive nanofibrous biocomposites (CNBs) of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyaniline (PANi) are fabricated using electrospinning. At the percolation threshold (φ), the growth of continuous paths between PANi particles leads to a steep increase in the electrical conductivity of fibers, and the McLachlan equation is fitted to identify φ. Annealing generates additional conductive channels, which lead to higher conductivity for dynamic percolation. For the first time, dynamic percolation is investigated for revealing time-temperature superposition in oriented conductive nanofibrous biocomposites. The crystallinity (χ) displays a linear dependence on annealing temperature within the confined fiber of CNBs. The increase in crystallinity due to annealing also increases the Young's modulus E of CNBs. The present study outlines a reliable approach to determining the conductivity and elasticity of nanofibers that are highly desirable for a wide range of biological tissue applications.
