The Development of Electrospun Conductive Polymer Nanofibres for Gas Sensing Applications

This thesis describes the process of electrospinning high concentration, high molecular weight polyaniline (PANi) doped with (+)-camphor-10-sulfonic acid (CSA) into nanofibrous membranes, which was facilitated by a novel dissolution method allowing the total solvation of PANI-CSA in common organic solvents. The PANi-CSA nanofibre membranes were subsequently employed as substrates in colorimetric gas sensing, which demonstrated linearity upon exposure to 10-5,650 ppm of ammonia at ambient and high (80 %RH) humidity. Furthermore, the same novel dissolution method was employed to dissolve and electrospin another intractable polymer - polydopamine (PDA) - into novel nanofibre membranes.