Mechanical and electrical properties of graphene-coated polyimide yarns improved by nitrogen plasma pre-treatment

One-dimensional high-performance yarns with excellent conductivity and flexibility are of considerable interest in the energy and aerospace industries. However, how to achieve highly conductivity, excellent flexibility, extreme condition durability and high mechanical performance in one fiber material is still a great challenge using economically viable materials and synthesis technologies. Herein, we report electrically conductive yarns (modified polyimide (M-PI)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) yarns) consisting of RGO coated on the surface of nitrogen plasma M-PI yarns, which are fabricated by combining the N-2 plasma pre-treatment and repeated dip-coating and reducing technique. N-2 plasma treatment is used to roughen the surface of the PI yarn and introduce functional groups, contributing to improve wettability, which can provide a stronger adhesion of the graphene coating. The dip-coating and reducing process was repeated 10 times to enhance the loading mass of RGO on the PI yarns, then M-PI/RGO yarns with better conductivity property can be obtained. The effects of N-2 plasma treatment power and time on the M-PI yarns and M-PI/RGO yarns are investigated and discussed. The results demonstrate that the graphene layer is uniformly and densely coated on the PI yarn when being treated at 200 W for 8 min, and the conductivity of the M-PI/RGO yarn reaches 1.51 x 10(2) S/m. The M-PI/RGO yarn combine the advantages of RGO and PI yarns, retaining the mechanical properties and thermal stability of PI yarn while exploiting the conductive property of RGO. In addition, the enhanced adhesion between the PI yarn and graphene coating endows the composite yarns with excellent fastness and superior flexibility. This work describes an environmentally friendly, controllable and facile method to develop flexible and conductive functional graphene-coated PI yarns with high-performance properties.