Chemically driven polyacrylonitrile fibers as a linear actuator

A pH sensitive polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber, exhibiting soft actuation as a linear actuator, is prepared by electrospinning to investigate the optimum experimental condition of the as-spun fibers and the effect of pH variation on length change of PAN gel fiber. Unbeaded smooth and continuous PAN nanofibers with diameter of similar to 700 nm are obtained for the 10 wt% PAN fibers at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/h and an electric field of 0.875 kV/cm, suggesting that the value of viscosity is the most significant on the fiber morphology, Diameter and volume changes of PAN filaments are observed as greater than 100% and greater than 720%, respectively for pH activated systems. A typical hysteresis loop is observed for the length change (similar to 38%) of PAN gels with respect to pH variation.