Preparation and Characterization of Conductive Cellulosic Fabric by Polymerization of Pyrrole

Abstract

Preparation of conductive cotton fabrics, by polymerization of pyrrole in presence of FeCl 3 as an oxidizing agent and tetraethylammonium p-toluene sulfonat (TEAp-TS) as a doping agent which in turn caused a reduction in the moisture regain of the substrate, resulted in production conductive cotton fabrics in laboratory scale. Factors affecting the proper-ties of the fabrics were studied, such as ratio between FeCl 3 and TEAp-TS and pyrrole concentration. Polypyrrole coated cotton fabrics were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Resistivity, weight gain, color strength, tensile strength and elongation of the coated fabric with polypyr-rol were monitored according to ASTM procedures. The results had shown that, the conductivity, weight gain, color strength, tensile strength and elongation increase by increasing FeCl 3 , TEAp-TS and pyrrole concentration. This is due to the increase of amount of the conductive polymer on the fabric surface. FeCl 3 (0.25 M/L), TEAp-TS (0.125 M/L), pyrrole (0.3 M/L), temperature (25˚C) and time (4 h) represented the most appropriate formulation for effecting polym-erizing of pyrrole and anchoring on cotton fabrics.