Electrically conductive polyaniline/polyimide microfiber membrane prepared via a combination of solution blowing and subsequent in situ polymerization growth

Dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) doped-polyaniline (PANI) coated conductive polyimide (PI) microfiber membrane was prepared by chemical oxidation polymerization. PI nanofiber membrane was prepared by solution blowing. Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) proved that the successful preparation of composite microfiber membrane with core-shell structures. At the same time, the PANI had an effect of protection on PI nanofiber, which was detected by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The orthogonal experiments were designed to determine the optimal reaction conditions for the conductivity of PANI/PI microfiber membranes as following: ANI concentration (0.15 mol L −1 ), APS concentration (0.1 mol L −1 ) and DBSA concentration (0.3 mol L −1 ). The conductivity of PANI/PI microfiber membranes could arrive to 3.83 × 10 −2  S cm −1 . Moreover, the PANI/PI microfiber membranes had a superior hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) adsorption performance. The factors affecting the performance of hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) removal from the aqueous solutions were investigated.