Electroconductive polyblend fibers of polyamide‐6/polypropylene/polyaniline: Electrical,morphological, and mechanical characteristics

Melt spun drawn fibers were prepared using a ternary blend of PP/PA6/PANI‐complex (polypropylene/polyamide‐6/polyaniline‐complex). Their electrical and mechanical properties were compared to those of binary blend fibers of PP/PANI‐complex. The results of the morphological studies on 55:25:20 PP/PA6/PANI‐complex ternary fibers were found to be in accordance with the predicted morphology for the observed conductivity vs. fiber draw ratio. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of the ternary blend illustrated at least a three‐phase morphology of a matrix/core‐shell dispersed phase style, with widely varying sizes of droplets. This resulted in a dispersed morphology that, in some parts of the blend, approached a bicontinuous/dispersed phase morphology due to coalescence of the small droplets. The matrix was PP and the core‐shell dispersed phase was PA6 and PANI‐complex, in which a part of the PANI‐complex had encapsulated the PA6 phase and the remaining was solved/dispersed in the PA6 core, as later confirmed by X‐ray mapping. When the ternary blend fibers were compared to the binary fibers, the formers were able to combine better conductivity (of an order of 10^?3 S cm^?1) with a greater tensile strength only at a draw ratio of 5. This indicated that the draw ratio is more critical for the ternary blend fibers, because both conductivity and tensile strength depended on the formation of fibrils from the core‐shell dispersed phase of the PA6/PANI‐complex. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers