A Wet-Spinning Process for Producing Carbon Nanotube/Polyvinylidene Fluoride Fibers Having Highly Consistent Electrical and Mechanical Properties

Abstract

Studies of polymer/carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers typically focus on optimizing the overall properties, and the effects of structural variation on these properties are ignored. Thus, we investigated the longitudinal variation in the properties of CNT/polyvinylidene fluoride (CNT/PVDF) fibers prepared by wet spinning a solution of multi-walled nanotubes, PVDF, and dimethylacetamide. To this end, materials for the CNT/PVDF fiber were selected, and a dope solution was prepared using MWNT, PVDF, and dimethylacetamide (DMAc). To consider the process parameters that would affect the performance of the CNT/PVDF fiber during the wet-spinning process using the dope solution, the initial conditions for wet spinning were selected, including bath concentration, bath temperature, drying temperature, and elongation, and the CNT/PVDF fiber was spun under the corresponding conditions. Additionally, three performance stabilization processes were proposed to improve the initial conditions for wet spinning and manufacturing the fiber. Lastly, to confirm the reliability of the CNT/PVDF fiber in all sections, tensile strength, electrical conductivity, and cross-sectional images were analyzed for the 30 m, 60 m, and 90 m sections of the fiber, and the reliability of the wet-spinning process was verified.

Keywords

• carbon nanotube
• electrical conductivity
• polyvinylidene fluoride
• tensile strength
• wet spinning