Synthesis of Highly Conductive Electrospun Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Nanofibers Using the Electroless Deposition Method

Nadir Hussain; Mujahid Mehdi; Muhammad Yousif; Aizaz Ali; Sana Ullah; Sajid Hussain Siyal; Tanweer Hussain; Ick Soo Kim

doi:10.3390/nano11020531

Synthesis of Highly Conductive Electrospun Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Nanofibers Using the Electroless Deposition Method

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2021 Feb 19;11(2):531. doi: 10.3390/nano11020531.

Authors

Nadir Hussain¹, Mujahid Mehdi², Muhammad Yousif², Aizaz Ali³, Sana Ullah¹, Sajid Hussain Siyal⁴, Tanweer Hussain⁵, Ick Soo Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ Nano Fusion Technology Research Group, Division of Frontier Fibers, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Shinshu University, Tokida 3-15-1, Ueda, Nagano Prefecture 386-8567, Japan.
² National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
⁴ Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi 74800, Pakistan.
⁵ Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology and Materials, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro 76060, Pakistan.

Abstract

Plastic bottles are generally recycled by remolding them into numerous products. In this study, waste from plastic bottles was used to fabricate recycled polyethylene terephthalate (r-PET) nanofibers via the electrospinning technique, and high-performance conductive polyethylene terephthalate nanofibers (r-PET nanofibers) were prepared followed by copper deposition using the electroless deposition (ELD) method. Firstly, the electrospun r-PET nanofibers were chemically modified with silane molecules and polymerized with 2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl trimethylammonium chloride (METAC) solution. Finally, the copper deposition was achieved on the surface of chemically modified r-PET nanofibers by simple chemical/ion attraction. The water contact angle of r-PET nanofibers, chemically modified r-PET nanofibers, and copper deposited nanofibers were 140°, 80°, and 138°, respectively. The r-PET nanofibers retained their fibrous morphology after copper deposition, and EDX results confirmed the presence of copper on the surface of r-PET nanofibers. XPS was performed to analyze chemical changes before and after copper deposition on r-PET nanofibers. The successful deposition of copper one r-PET nanofibers showed an excellent electrical resistance of 0.1 ohms/cm and good mechanical strength according to ASTM D-638.

Keywords: electroless deposition; electrospinning; nanofibers; waste drinking bottles; wearable electronics.