A Straightforward Approach of Wet-Spinning Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Polystyrene Sulfate Fibers for Use in All Conducting Polymer-Based Textile Actuators

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), an inherently electrically conductive or conjugated polymer (CP), exhibits the potential to play a significant role in the development of innovative fiber materials for use in smart textiles, such as wearables. Furthermore, these fibers can function as artificial muscles in the emerging field of interactive fiber rubber composites. This study introduces a straightforward and efficient method for creating PEDOT-based, biomimetic, fiber-shaped, linearly contracting ionic electroactive polymer actuators. To achieve this, a wet-spinning technique is presented, which enables a continuous production of PEDOT:polystyrene sulfate (PSS) fibers at high production rates of 34 m h-1, an additional fiber washing step and a sulfuric acid posttreatment step to increase the fibers conductivity. The fibers provide a high conductivity of 1028 S cm-1, maximum tensile strength reaching 182 MPa, and a maximum elongation of 24%. When utilized as CP actuators in an aqueous sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate electrolyte medium, the fibers demonstrate a repeatable maximum isometric contractile force of 1.64 mN and repeatable linear contractile strain up to 0.56%. Furthermore, a high level of cyclic long-term actuation stability can be demonstrated. Notably, these contractile strains are, to the best of knowledge, the highest reported values for pristine PEDOT:PSS fibers.This study introduces a wet-spinning method for high-volume production of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfate-based conducting polymer fibers, spanning tens to hundreds of meters. Evaluating their physical properties, with emphasis on actuation, reveals robust and stable actuation capabilities, promising for integration into intelligent textiles for wearables or soft robotics with sensing or actuating functionalities.image (c) 2024 WILEY-VCH GmbH

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number2400315
Number of pages11
JournalAdvanced Intelligent Systems
Volume(2024)
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 30 Jul 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85200046563
ORCID /0000-0003-0423-4093/work/170107400
WOS 001281152300001

Keywords

Keywords

  • Actuators, Artificial muscles, Biomimetic, Ionic electroactive polymer actuators, Smart textiles, Wearables, Yarns