Cellulose nanofiber-assisted dispersion of cellulose nanocrystals@polyaniline in water and its conductive films

Abstract

Dispersion is crucial for many applications of nanostructured materials. In this work, a facile and efficient method for dispersion of cellulose nanocrystals@polyaniline (CNCs@PANI) nanocomposites in an aqueous solution is reported by using cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) as a dispersant. CNCs@PANI was prepared for the experiment by using CNCs as a template and controlling the reactions to obtain fiber-like nanocomposites. Then, the nanocomposite was dispersed in water with the CNFs by means of mechanical shearing. The centrifugal and storage stabilities of the nanocomposite were measured, as well as the zeta potential. The results showed that the CNFs had special dispersion assisting effects for dedoped CNCs@PANI. The CNCs@PANI dispersion showed good centrifugal and storage stability, and a zeta potential of −30.7 mV was recorded with the addition of 10 wt% CNFs. This CNCs@PANI dispersion was cast to obtain a conductive film, which had tensile strength and electrical conductivity of 26.7 MPa and 104.7 S m⁻¹, respectively.