Electrically conducting electrospun silk membranes fabricated by adsorption of carbon nanotubes

We present a simple method of obtaining electrically conducting electrospun silk non-woven membranes consisting of nanofibers with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) adsorbed on their surface. Nanofibrous membranes with fibroin diameters of 460 ± 40 nm were formed from aqueous Bombyx mori fibroin solution by electrospinning. The MWCNTs adhered well to the surface of the highly porous silk nanofibrous membranes when Triton X-100 was used as the surfactant for the dispersion of the MWCNTs in aqueous media. The electrical conductivity of the membranes was 2.4 × 10⁻⁴ S/cm due to the presence of the MWCNTs on their surface. In addition, the strong interaction between the MWCNTs and nanofibers keeps them from separating each other, even after ultrasonication. The combination of the high conductivity of the membranes and the simple process used to fabricate them could lead to significant advances in the development of new materials, such as electromagnetic interference shielding or electrostatic dissipation membranes.