Conductive Fibre Prepared From Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyaniline for Smart Fabric and Interactive Textile Applications

Panion™ fibre is prepared from a high molecular weight version of chlorine and defect free polyaniline (PANI). It is processed into textile fibre by continuous wet spinning techniques. The room temperature DC conductivity for unstretched and stretched (5x at 373 K) high molecular weight samples was 72 and 725 Ω−1 cm−1, respectively. Resistivity measurements of Panion™, from 4 to 350 K, indicate that the fibre manufacturing process and the polymer synthetic route both serve to minimize structural disorder in the solid-state. The transport resides on the metallic side of the metal-insulator (M-I) phase boundary for unstretched and stretched fibre samples prepared from high Mw PANI emeraldine base. The monofilament fibre can be formed into yarns for weaving fabric, braided into 2- and 3- dimensional structures, or used to form knitted fabrics, all with tunable electronic functionality.