Tian Shujun, Peng Hao, Liu Huaizhi, Zhou Jiancheng, Zhang Jiuyang
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Biomedical Research, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
Research (Wash D C). 2022 Oct 27;2022:9890686. doi: 10.34133/2022/9890686. eCollection 2022.
Conductive polymer fibers/wires (CPFs) are important materials in modern technologies due to their unique one-dimension geometry, electrical conductivity, and flexibility. However, the advanced applications of current CPFs are limited by their low electrical conductivities (<500 S/m) and poor interfacial interactions between conductive fillers (e.g., graphite) and polymers. Therefore, in current electrical applications, metal wires/foils like copper and aluminum are the most frequently utilized conductive fibers/wires instead of the inferior conductive CPFs. This work successfully addresses the heavy phase segregation between polymers and conductive inorganic materials to obtain semiliquid metal polymer fibers (SLMPFs) which exhibit an ultrahigh electrical conductivity (over 10 S/m), remarkable thermal processability, and considerable mechanical performance (Young's modulus: ~300 MPa). Semiliquid metal (gallium-tin alloy) with tunable viscosities is the key to achieve the excellent miscibility between metals and polymers. Both the rheological results and numerical simulations demonstrate the critical viscosity matching for the successful preparation of the fibers. More importantly, the fibers are adapted with classic polymer melt-processing like melt injection, which indicates the scalable production of the highly conductive fibers. The SLMPFs are highly promising substitutes for metal wires/fibers in modern electrical applications such as electricity transmission, data communication, and underwater works.
导电聚合物纤维/电线（CPFs）因其独特的一维几何形状、导电性和柔韧性，成为现代技术中的重要材料。然而，目前CPFs的先进应用受到其低电导率（<500 S/m）以及导电填料（如石墨）与聚合物之间不良界面相互作用的限制。因此，在当前的电气应用中，铜和铝等金属线/箔是最常用的导电纤维/电线，而非导电性较差的CPFs。这项工作成功解决了聚合物与导电无机材料之间严重的相分离问题，从而获得了具有超高电导率（超过10 S/m）、出色热加工性能和相当机械性能（杨氏模量：约300 MPa）的半液态金属聚合物纤维（SLMPFs）。具有可调粘度的半液态金属（镓锡合金）是实现金属与聚合物优异混溶性的关键。流变学结果和数值模拟均表明，成功制备纤维需要关键的粘度匹配。更重要的是，这些纤维适用于诸如熔体注射等经典的聚合物熔体加工，这表明高导电纤维可规模化生产。在输电、数据通信和水下作业等现代电气应用中，SLMPFs极有希望替代金属线/纤维。
