Conductivity measurement of nanostructured film of PAA-PAN-GOLD nanoparticles

The effect of humidity on electrospun fibre morphology and conductivity on gold nanoparticles loading were investigated in the study. Electrospinning technique was introduced. Polymer blend of polyacrylic acid (PAA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) solutions were prepared and used to form electrospun fibre. Mixture of PAA/PAN solution was then prepared to be used as precursor for the electrospinning. The distance from the tip of the needle to the aluminium foil plate for electrospinning, voltage, temperature and feed rate were kept constant. The humidity of the process was the only parameter that was varied at 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% relative humidity (RH). After the electrospinning process, the characterization analysis was done using SEM analysis and EIS analysis. SEM analysis was done with the sample without gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) loading for each relative humidity and only the sample with the highest conductivity measured which was at 30 % RH, was added with 0.1 ml of AuNPs to study the morphology of the electrospun fibre. For EIS analysis, two part of conductivity measurement were done. The first part was without the addition of AuNPs and the second part was with the addition of 0.1 ml of AuNPs to the electrospun fibre. It showed that different humidity had different morphology and different fibre size distribution. The average fibre diameter was the lowest at 30% RH and the highest at 60% RH. Average fibre diameter increased as relative humidity increased and the fibre size distribution also increased as the relative humidity increased. Conductivity measured was the highest at 30% RH and the lowest conductivity measured was at 60% RH. Value of conductivity measured of the electrospun fibre was higher with the addition of AuNPs compared to the electrospun fibre without AuNPs. Nanoparticles was an ideal material used to enhance conductivity of electrospun fibre to be used in sensor applications.