Enzymatic Modification of Polyamide for Improving the Conductivity of Water-Based Multilayer Nanocoatings

Igor Jordanov; Daniel L Stevens; Anita Tarbuk; Eva Magovac; Sandra Bischof; Jaime C Grunlan

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b01052

Enzymatic Modification of Polyamide for Improving the Conductivity of Water-Based Multilayer Nanocoatings

ACS Omega. 2019 Jul 11;4(7):12028-12035. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01052. eCollection 2019 Jul 31.

Authors

Igor Jordanov¹, Daniel L Stevens², Anita Tarbuk³, Eva Magovac³, Sandra Bischof³, Jaime C Grunlan^{2

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Textile Engineering, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Ruger Boskovic 16, 1000 Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia.
² Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, 3255 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843, United States.
³ Department of Textile Chemistry and Ecology, Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb, Prilaza baruna Filipovica 28a, Zagreb 10000, Croatia.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3003 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843, United States.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3123 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843, United States.

Abstract

Enzymatic modification, using a protease from Bacillus licheniformis (Subtilisin A), was carried out on polyamide 6.6 (PA6.6) fabric to make it more amenable to water-based nanocoatings used to impart electrical conductivity. The modified PA6.6 fibers exhibit a smoother surface, increased hydrophilicity due to more carboxyl and amino groups, and larger ζ-potential relative to unmodified polyamide. With its improved hydrophilicity and surface functionality, the modified textile is better able to accept a water-based nanocoating, composed of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) stabilized by sodium deoxycholate (DOC) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA), deposited via layer-by-layer assembly. Relative to unmodified fabric, the enzymatically modified fibers exhibit lower sheet resistance as a function of PDDA/MWCNT-DOC bilayers deposited. This relatively green technique could be used to impart a variety of useful functionalities to otherwise difficult-to-treat synthetic fibers like polyamide.