Preparation and characterization of conductive and antibacterial polyacrylonitrile terpolymer yarns produced by one-step organic coating

In this research work, electrically conductive PAN yarns were produced by coating with copper sulfide and, afterward, evaluated. PAN yarns were treated in a bath containing divalent copper ions, a reducing agent, which is capable of reducing the divalent copper ions to monovalent copper ions and a sulfur-containing compound for sulfidation of copper ions attached to the samples. A pH controlling agent (an organic acid) may be used to enhance the quality of copper sulfide adsorbed by the yarns which, in turn, improves the electrical conductivity of the samples. Using the results obtained from this study, we had to develop appropriate suitable formulation for application and optimization of copper sulfide coating of PAN-based materials. The copper coating of PAN yarns resulted in a reduction of electrical resistivity to 1 × 10¹⁰ that of an almost infinite resistance for the untreated yarns. The influence of linear density of the samples on the electrical conductivity and the mechanical properties of the copper-coated PAN yarns were evaluated. Copper-coated PAN yarns displayed very high light fastness and a washing fastness property to multiple washes in terms of electrical conductivity changes. The coating of PAN yarns with copper sulfide confers good antibacterial performance and the antibacterial activity of coated yarns against S. aureus after eight home laundering cycles was not significantly reduced. Results showed that coating PAN samples with copper sulfide can produce samples with good antistatic and antibacterial properties while, at the same time, retaining touch, washability, and other physical properties of the starting samples.