Development of novel nanostructured conducting polypyrrole fibres

Abstract

Polypyrrole (PPy) as a conducting polymer has potential applications in electrical and electronic devices because of its high electrical conductivity, environmental stability and redox activity. There have been many attempts to endow electrically PPy with processibility. Although some success has been achieved via synthesising soluble PPy, there have remained difficulties to fabricate this material through fibre spinning due to its low molecular weight and poor mechanical properties. Prior to this thesis, there was no report of the production of PPy fibres. This project therefore aimed to produce novel “polypyrrole fibres via the development of nanostructured conducting polypyrrole” by fibre spinning of PPy and to investigate the formed fibres for applications such as actuators, e- textiles, batteries, sensors and biomedical areas.