Enhanced Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fiber Powder Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Composite

Recently polymer composites embedded with conconductive carbon nano-filler (graphene or carbon nanofibers) have drawn considerable attention because of their multifunctional properties appropriate for electronic and biomedical applications. Cabon fibers (CFs) have extraordinary properties as filler material. As it is difficult to homogeniously mix CFs with polymer, in the present paper, insulating polyvinyal alcohol (PVA)/conducting carbon filament fiber powder (CFP) composite films were synthesized and characterized for the study of their electrical, dielectric and mechanical properties. Enhanced electrical conductivity, dielectric permittivity and mechanical properties were observed with the addition of conducting carbon filament powder in the composites. Such enhanced electrical, dielectric and mechanical properties represented multifunctional behavior of the biopolymer composite films and also indicated their compatibility for applications in fuel cell electrode material as well as for biomedical scaffold for tissue engineering.