Abstract:

Chemically activated polyacrylonitrile (aPAN) displays ionic electro-mechanically active polymer properties. Thin, gel-like fibre is a technically feasible form of aPAN, as it quickly shrinks or swells in response to a variation in electrolyte pH, soaking it in. A prerequisite for direct electrical stimulation of aPAN fibres through electrolysis–produced variations in pH is their electrical conductivity, commonly achieved by complex surface modification of already-formulated aPAN. The paper presents an alternative approach involving the exploitation of electro-conducting surface-modified PAN fibres as a precursor for fabrication of aPAN. The electrical conductivity of precursor PAN fibres was achieved by the chemical formation of a copper sulfide complex covering.